Sixteen years of working for the United States Postal Service has taught me many things.For example, people who drink tell their problems to the bartender, but teatotalers tell all to the mail carrier. I know some things about a lot of my customers that I really never wanted to know!
Another thing that I've learned is that there are two words which when combined are incomprehensible to many people. Those words are "current resident." I don't know why people seem to have such difficulty understanding this phrase, but they do.
At least once or twice a week, I have a customer attempt to return a piece of mail addressed to John Smith or Current Resident, 123 Main St. Well, not exactly that address, but you get my point, don't you? Often these people will scribble on the mail piece, "This is not mine!" or "Doesn't live here." I swear that some folks just sit around waiting for an opportunity to scribble on the mail. They shouild stop it this instant. If there is any scribbling that needs to be done on the mail, it's MY job to do it. Perhaps these people should get jobs with the post office. But this is all beside the point. The point is that if a piece of mail is addressed to your house and says current resident on it in any spot, that piece of mail is yours. It matters not what other name may appear on it. Current Resident means YOU! Why is this such a problem for so many people? If they don't want the stupid things, they should throw them away. I'm a mail carrier, goddammit, not a garbage collector!
