TEAR Ray te

A COUPLE of centuries ago we began improving our

health, education, work habits and technology and as a
result Fecame as we are now, damn near perfect.

Why is it that we have to keep
reminding ourselves of this, over
and over again, whenever we mail
a letter?

Canada Post’s latest organiza-
tional triumph is what is called a
confirmation service. It has
nothing to do with being received
into the Catholic church.

after your letter was scheduled to
arrive. And what, one may ask,
would that day be?

When it can take six days fora
letter to travel from White Rock
to Langley, eight days at a mini-
mum for one to get here from
New York City, just when does
the customer start phoning to

Canada Post’s peace of mind program is
being conducted on an experimental basis in
six cities of Ontario and Quebec. If nobody
dies laughing, we can expect to enjoy the

service out here.”’

Canada Post’s confirmation
service is a label, which you buy
for 90 cents and stick on a 39-cent
letter. This authorizes you to tele-
phone a toll-free number and be
assured that yes, Canada Post did,
indeed, do what it promised to
do. A post office spokesman said
it should offer the customers
peace of mind.

This opens up a vast new spec-
trum of practices in the service
industries.

**Here’s your six dollars for
mowing the lawn, Johnnie.”’

“*Thanks Mister, but it was two
dollars.”

“*That’s right. Two dollars was
the price we agreed for mowing
the lawn. The other four dollars
are because you actually did the
job. That gave me peace of
mind.”

“Mister, do you think maybe
you should go inside out of the
sun and rest for a while?’’

Canada Post’s peace of mind
program is being conducted on an
experimental basis in six cities of
Ontario and Quebec. If nobody
dies laughing, we can expect to
enjoy the service out here.

However, you can’t make your
toll-free phone call until the day

ake Us For ASpin And Win!
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OTOR CARS —

claim 90 cents’ worth of mental
ease?

Back in the bad old days of
1945, Confirmation Labels
weren't needed on letters. Canada
was one of the first countries in
the world to move all first class
mail by air.

It was usual to get letters from
Toronto, Montreal or Ecum
Secum, Nova Scotia, in 48 hours.
They were delivered to your front
door.

We took such service for
granted. None of us realized that
we had embarked upon a new and
glorious era where communication
would become more and more
rapid and peace of mind a cons-
tant condition.

Seen from 1990, the bad old
postal service seems to have
qualities we may have forgotten.

Let’s try to remember.

In her book about the evacua-
tion of the Nisei from Vancouver,
the late Muriel Kitigawa tells of
writing a despairing letter in May,
1942, from the animal barns at
the Hastings Exhibition Grounds
where she and her compatriots
had been herded. She was about
to be sent to Kaslo and wanted to
get to Toronto instead.

= ee

“Ed mailed the letter for me on
Friday morning from the Main
Post Office. That was about
noon. A little after 3 o'clock the
same day Mrs. C. Booth, (work-
ing there) phoned up to say they'd
gotten the letter..."

Hands up, anybody who thinks
he can get that service out of
Vancouver’s main post office in
1990,

Why stop at 1942?

Why not look at another coun-
try, during another war?

On July 13, 1793, a simple
Norman French girl named
Charlotte Corday came to Paris to
assassinate Jean Paul Marat. This
was during the French Revolu-
tion’s Reign of Terror, recognized
as one of the greatest social con-
vulsions in human history.

Charlotte dropped a letter into
a post box in the morning of July
13 and walked half way across
Paris, sublimely confident that it
would be delivered by the time of
her arrival at Marat's home at 1
p.m. the same day. It had been.

The guillotine was chopping
heads like cabbages. Half of
Europe was at war with France.
Nobody knew exactly who was
running France. (People never
know, but there were «en fewer
who thought they knew. July,
1793.)

Yet an ordinary fetter was
delivered, routinely, in less than
half a day.

There were no sorting machines,
coding devices, fax communica-
tions or electrical devices of any
sort. There were no vehicles such
as trucks or even bicycles. There
was no Pony Express in that
wrungout, strungout, terrified and
demoralized city.

There were no Confirmation
Labels.

"WESTPRESS
DESIGN, & PRINTING
FROM CONCEP? TO
FINISHED PRODUCT
Recycled paper available
2443 Marine Drive. West Vancouver
922-0247 Bowen 947-9745

Now Fea

APE)
inciuaes *Flocrcevers QO Gniov

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9 - Friday, July 27, 1990 - North Shore News

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