Identity Crisis

In St. Louis the famous question is, "Where did you go to school?" Around here it is, Where do you live?" This is a bigger problem than you realize.

We moved to north Cape Girardeau County several years ago to a rural subdivision north of Shawneetown. We were told we could use New Wells or Altenburg for our mailing address but not Shawneetown. The mail comes from Altenburg so we chose that. Try to explain it for a delivery- they couldn't find us. Hind sight is 20/20- we should have used New Wells since it, at least, is in Cape Girardeau County.

Watch out this is getting worse. Two companies publish phone books for the region. I have no clue why I checked our listings but I did and found that in the one from Yellowbook we have a Pocahontas (Pchts)address and zip code. In the Hometown Directories we have a 63769 zip code which is for Oak Ridge. I did call one of the companies to have it corrected and will do the other one soon but that takes a year before a new one is printed. I wrote letters to the postmasters in Oak Ridge and Pocahontas telling them what happened.

Now most typically, this wouldn't be an issue. Who gets mail anymore anyway? But my brother recently passed away and many kind people sent cards. God love the postmasters at Oak Ridge and Pocahontas and small town living as they had to correct and forward about three fourths of the cards.

So, where do we live? You know, I'm not real sure!

Comments