The "A Yellow Thank You" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Just walked back into the house from my mailbox for the second time today with a few pieces of junk mail and a hand-written letter from our mailman, Larry.  The first time early this morning was to place a manila envelope with a gift in it for our beloved mailman.  We moved to our "Beach House" in the mid-1990's and from the day we moved in we have had the same mailman.  Found out soon after we moved that we shared the same first name and we became friends from that point forward.  Many a day, while working in the yard or washing the car, I would wave to Larry as he deposited our mail in the great big wooden mailbox at the end of our driveway.  At times I would meet him at the mailbox when I saw him heading down Harrington Drive towards our house.  We could count on getting our mail everyday close to noon and knew I had a few hours in the morning to write out checks to pay bills and still get them in the mail box before he arrived.  Then on July 28 I received an email from a neighbor telling everyone in the neighborhood that our mailman of over 20 years was being transferred to another route.  The email continued with ... He has been WONDERFUL, and I'm hoping we can express our gratitude for his exceptional service by "showering" him with thank you notes in our mailboxes on his last day, July 31st.  Our new mailman is a friend of Larry's.  His name is Joe, and Larry promises us that we won't be disappointed.  

Larry's "Thank You" note.

Well, I decided it would be nice to offer him a gift so I picked out one of my altered Polaroids that I sell and made one for Larry.  Picture of an Amish buggy in Lancaster County.  Placed it in an envelope with a note thanking Larry for his service and placed it in the mailbox this morning.  His return "Thank You" was written on, of all things, a yellow US Postal Service "Hold Mail" postcard.  Hopefully he will receive a few more note cards and maybe a few gifts to thank him for his loyal and attentive service to our needs in the past.  Will have to meet Joe in the near future and introduce myself to him.  Not that he won't know my name by the time I meet him.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.