We’ve had great mail carriers over the years and Phil Blandon was one of the best. Phil always had a smile and genuinely loved the people on his route. Sadly, closeness to the mail carrier is disappearing. Unless Congress acts, the Postal Service will soon default on a $5.5 billion payment. The Postmaster General wants to cut $9.2 out of the budget by eliminating Saturday delivery, closing 3,700 post offices, and laying off 120,000 workers. UPS, Fed Ex, labor contracts, and e-mail are taking their toll on a way of life.
John Storbeck, another great guy, was our milkman when we grew up. His white and red Dixie Dairy milk truck was a common sight, just like the mail truck. As the postal service is going, so home delivery has gone. In the case of milk, it was big supermarkets that packaged their own labels and could sell cheaper.
Evers Pharmacy in Collinsville was a comfortable, our town kind of drugstore, but competing against the big boys wasn’t doable. It was sold to Walgreens.
We can grieve the losses…or living in this time of unprecedented change, we can put these changes into the bigger spiritual picture. “Here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.” (Hebrews 13:14)
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