Peanuts Begins by Charles Schulz for March 25, 2018

I might have heard the Canadian postal code to Santa Claus was H0H 0H0 (what’s with zeros, not Os).

Wow! pre-Zip code. Hate to age myself, but I remember plain postal codes. Ours was 18, later the last 2 digits of our Zip code!

I remember when zipcodes were new. I was about six, and my dad worked in the construction on the new postoffice building. I boasted to my friends that our town was going to use “our” new zipcode—I thought it was our family’s special code. Knowing my stupid dad, he probably told me that pretending to be serious, knowing I wouldn’t realise he was kidding.

@orinocowomble – We must be the same age. I was either 5 or 6 when the zip codes were installed into our address. I remember thinking, “How on earth would anyone remember that?” , as I was, from the cradle, an idiot when it came to numbers. Never made sense to me. They still don’t over 55 years later! LOL

First the management of the Post Offal invented postal zones, so that when your mail didn’t arrive on time they could blame you for not using postal zone numbers.

Then they discovered that people were using postal zone numbers, so they needed a new excuse; thus ZIP codes. Your mail wasn’t getting delivered on time because you didn’t use ZIP codes.

Once people had gotten used to ZIP codes, the U.S.P.S. needed a new excuse; thus ZIP + 4.

I await the next step in the process with great interest.

This was back when zone numbers, now part of zip codes, were new.

Schulz was not a fan of zip codes when they were introduced, either. He even had a short-lived character whose name was a number, 555-something. His dad named his kids numbers in protest.

ZIP stood for Zone Improvement Program.

And let’s not forget Mr. Zip, USPS’ Zip Code mascot!

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mr.Zip-2003.PNG

Santa has a Canadian Postal Code, and it’s H0H 0H0.

“TIP: the first 3-digits of your destination ZIP Code determine the Zone, or ‘prefix’. For example, the prefix for ZIP Code 67679 is 676.” SRC: https://www.pitneybowes.com/us/support/postage/understanding-postal-zip-zones-and-charts.html

What I miss more than the old and simpler address zones are the old and distinctive telephone number exchanges. Mine in New York City was Lorraine, and so I always remember our family’s telephone number as beginning with LO.

“Return to sender.Address unknown.No such number.No such zone!”

North Pole, Alaska 99705

Santa’s from Schenectady! https://dailygazette.com/article/2015/12/16/santa-letters-ge-12345_wp