The small-town post office is a hub for local news
There is one major difficulty in living in a small town like
Aromas: There is no newspaper here that is made specifically for
us. There are newspapers all around us
– in Salinas, Watsonville, Hollister and even San Juan Bautista
– but not Aromas.
Needless to say, there is no news website for Aromas either.
There are just not enough people here for anyone to launch any kind
of media for us.
The small-town post office is a hub for local news
There is one major difficulty in living in a small town like Aromas: There is no newspaper here that is made specifically for us. There are newspapers all around us – in Salinas, Watsonville, Hollister and even San Juan Bautista – but not Aromas.
Needless to say, there is no news website for Aromas either. There are just not enough people here for anyone to launch any kind of media for us.
And so we must get our news the old-fashioned way, by talking to the neighbors over the back fence. And at the post office.
Oh, Aromas occasionally gets some notice in the local press when something dramatic happens – a train derailment or a mountain lion sighting, for instance – but by and large, we are reliant on each other, and not on journalists, for the town news.
And that’s where the post office comes in.
Aromas is lucky enough to have its own post office and its own ZIP code – no easy matter in these days of budgetary austerity – although I fear that not too many years in the future, we will have our precious P.O. taken away.
But for the moment, it is ours.
I love the Aromas post office. I am there frequently to mail this or that, and it is the place to see people, catch up on gossip, and peruse the large bulletin board outside, to see who is selling a power saw, has horse property to lease, or has a lost dog.
And then there is Melinda, who has the soul of a journalist, despite the fact that she is actually employed by the U.S. Postal Service. Melinda, who can generally be found behind the counter, also gives you the news along with your postal materials.
Recently she was letting everyone know that sheriff’s deputies had arrested a guy who was responsible for break-ins in the downtown Aromas area. This led to conversations with customers about crime in general, and how, alas, it appears to be on the rise in our little town.
That’s what I like about Aromas. It’s a place where people do actually talk to each other.
But now with the budget problems at the USPS, there are changes to come. Thanks to the Internet, people aren’t mailing real letters much anymore, and even paper bills are going the way of the dodo bird. Now, USPS is considering more than 3,200 post offices and retail outlets for closure.
There are other changes coming as well. Probably no more Saturday deliveries, which seems likely and fairly painless.
However, they’re beginning to try to consolidate Aromas with the Watsonville post office, so that now all our carriers now report there to get the mail. I fear it’s the first step toward shutting the Aromas office for good.
For the moment, our post office will be there, at least until the lease is up on the building. But when the lease is done, all bets are off. And that means that possibly Melinda will not be around to give us all the news we need, plus postage.
The idea of having to drive 10 miles to a large impersonal post office gives me the shivers. Melinda and I chat about our children, our dogs, movies, what’s going on for the weekend, and a whole range of topics that I don’t imagine I would get into with postal employees in Salinas or Watsonville or even Hollister. It’s just not the same.
So I plan to enjoy my little post office during whatever time it has left in Aromas. After all, it’s where you hear the news. And a whole lot more.
