The Mailman

Clellie remembers Hughes, the mailman. Mail was delivered two times a day, the morning and the afternoon. It cost 3 cents to send a first class letter, 2 cents for local letter if you folded the flap in and did not seal it and of course, we had the penny postcard. This was the 40s. Gus was about four and he would get his tricycle and hook his wagon to it and Hughes would put his mailbag in the wagon , so Gus could help deliver the mail. Gus was many times a half a block ahead of Hughes. One day as Hughes was walking down the steps from our house, I called out of my bedroom window and asked if I had any mail. Hughes said, "Yes, you have a post card from Margie and she will be home next week". I asked Hughes to ask Nell if she wanted to go swimming when he got to her house up the street a couple of blocks. About thirty minutes later, Nell called and said she wanted to go.  One day when I was older, probably in college, I asked Hughes if he wanted to come in and watch an inning or so of the world series. We did not get a television until I was in college and it was a black and white little one that sat on the grand piano. He came in. Mother had her friends for lunch and had three tables of bridge going so I turned the TV down low so we would not disturb them. The ladies all thought it was funny that the mailman came in to watch TV.