Small Town, USA

Last week, delivered to our mailbox at ____ S. Partridge Road, was an envelope addressed to Pilgrim Christian School, Route 1, Partridge, KS 67566. The only part of the address that matched our address was the last line. The envelope was from someone seeking advertisements for the yellow pages in the phone book, probably addressed as it was because the school's telephone exchange is a Partridge number.

Someone at the Partridge post office obviously knows that I work at Pilgrim Christian School. Rather than reroute this envelope through the postal system to its correct address at ____ W. Mills Ave., Hutchinson, KS 67501, the post office employee unofficially charged me with delivering the envelope to its proper destination. This kind of thing surely happens only in places like Partridge, KS (population 259).

This works both ways. Not only do the postmaster and mail carrier know who lives and works where, everyone knows the postmaster or postmistress. One of my fellow students in high school knew more about the habits of the postmistress than I did. To discharge his social obligations properly (and to deliver a pointed dig, with accompanying bragging rights), he added "Hi Fern" to the bottom of every post card he mailed back to Partridge when he was out of town.

One of my brother's California college friends once, incredulous at the level of familiarity he witnessed when he visited here, mailed him a letter addressed to Myron, 67566. A short time later, it magically appeared in our box.

Notice to all who think rural Kansas would be a good place to disappear into the void: Not a chance. "All things are naked and open unto the eyes of [them] with whom we have to do."