50 Years of 5 Digits

{From the Smithsonian National Postal Museum: Doe Stella, from the Tucson, Arizona area, poses with Mr. Zip and the Post Office Department’s Director of Customer Relations in 1964. She, like other women across the country, was crowned Miss ZIP as part of the ZIP Code promotional campaign. (Posing with Mr. Zip 1964, courtesy Postal History Foundation, obtained from http://azmemory.lib.az.us).}

Last week, the ZIP code celebrated it's fiftieth anniversary. To promote it, they had beauty contests, their own theme song and a snappy mascot- Mr. Zip! By moving to machine readable numbers, the Post Office improved the letter sorting rate from, at best, 60 letters a minute by hand to 1700 letters a minute by machine. Here's a nice little blurb from NPR about it, as well as a list of famous ZIP codes.

I don't remember a time without ZIP. I've always liked those five numbers at the end of my address. What I do find myself wondering about is the "Plus Four". We all have an additional four numbers within our ZIP to further help with sorting. I can't remember a real concerted effort on behalf of the Post Office to get us to use them. Mr. Zip didn't get a sidekick or anything. How many of you use your Plus Four? 

 

P.S. Also, the winner of the Rad & Hungry review and giveaway was randomly chosen commentor number: 11, Karen J.S.  Please contact us with your member number and mailing address to claim your prize!

Comments

[melydia]

I can never remember my Plus Four digits. I appreciate that zip codes make life easier for the post office, but it does make me sad when a complete street address without a zip code is returned to sender as undeliverable.

[Pat P]

I remember when the zip was implemented, and the blue mailbox on the corner (and probably all other mailboxes) had big Mr Zip figures added to them. Not sure why the +4 seems to be so unimportant. What's the point of having it if no one uses it. I have seen it automatically added to my address by some businesses.

BTW, speaking of typewriters, it is being reported that the Kremlin is returning to the use of typewriters because of all the security leaks associated with computers. Who'd have thought.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/10173645/Kremlin-returns-to-typewriters-to-avoid-computer-leaks.html

[Joan Clarke]

I remember the campaign to implement the ZIP code. Before that we had a 2 digit zone code. I DO use my 4 digit extension number. I have a hard enough time getting mail since my house is in the wrong block for the address I have. I'm at 3700 in the block of 3600's! It's a mess when we get a new delivery person.

[Karl Fry]

I use the + 4 all the time. Seems to help speed up delivery, or so I tell myself!