This week I was reminded that if you want to see pretty much everyone you know, the best place to go is the Sandpoint Post Office. I went to the P.O. more than once this week, so I spent quite a bit of quality time in line.
My first trip was on Saturday. I forgot that Monday would be a holiday for the USPS, so there was considerable postal anticipation. All this excitement resulted in a line that stretched past the stamp machine and on toward the bulletin board. For those of you who haven’t seen our post office, that’s a long line.
The first clue that Saturday was a big postal moment was the Fourth Street traffic jam and the lack of any spaces in the parking lot. James let me out, so I could run inside while he circled the vicinity looking for a place to park. By the time he joined me, I had made it past the stamp machine and was the person with the honor of holding the inner door open with my foot.
The bad thing about Saturdays is that all the tiny satellite post offices like Dover and Ponderay are closed. So, you have every person in Bonner County with postal needs headed to Fourth Street to catch that magical two-hour window that the Sandpoint Post Office is open. (It’s open 11 to 1, for those who don’t know.)
The end result is a whole lot of people in line and only two postal employees to help them. Since it’s Sandpoint, odds are good that at least a few people in line will know each other and get into a deeply involved conversation as the overwrought postal employees deal with the onslaught. The people who work at the post office are really nice, but they have to answer questions about insurance, delivery confirmation, and stamps, so each transaction can take a while.
Last night I went to the Post Office again. This time, it was near closing time, which again is not perhaps the ideal time to visit. And again, the line was long. Although a few grumps bail out in disgust, for the most part, most people who go to the Sandpoint Post Office know that it’s going to take a while and just embrace the social scene.