Stories about World Post Day: Secret Messages and Sunsets – District of Böblingen

Filder – The marmot greets every day, and the mailbox rumbles almost every day when the postman opens the flap and throws in a few envelopes. Mostly gray bills or annoying advertisements, less often beautiful things like invitations, birth announcements or greetings from vacation. Even in times of e-mails and messages via mobile phone, the post office is indispensable. But mail can be even more than the classic letter, for example a secret message in class or the postcard collection with eternal memories. Our employees tell their personal postal stories.

Letters maintain friendship (Leonie Schüler)

Did Janosch’s classic children’s book, “Post für den Tiger”, influence me? In any case, just like the little tiger, I am always terribly happy when I receive nice mail.

I was certainly shaped by the pen friendship with my friend Lisi. We were the fattest of friends who often had such fits of laughter while playing that it resulted in muscle soreness. When we were twelve years old, Lisi moved to distant Bavaria. From then on we wrote letters to each other on a regular basis, which we pasted and decorated with great attention to detail. They were often pages long. And that, although we also spoke on the phone frequently. I remember exactly the feeling when I hoped to find a Lisi letter on the way home from school. Wonderful when one of their colorful envelopes was in my place! The thicker the better. Lunch had to wait – I retired to the room and read her breaking news.

We later switched from letters to emails. They too were an inch long, and it was hardly less pleasant to receive them. However, that fell asleep when we entered professional life. Today we send each other mobile phone messages with photos from time to time, which is also really nice. But no longer as eagerly awaited as the colorful envelopes back then.

Risky mail in the classroom (Judith A. Sägesser)

How I would still like to know what was on the pieces of paper back then that I folded up and sent across the classroom day in and day out. I had collected a large bag full of letters, just for occasions like this text or just to remind you, but unfortunately they spilled during some move. 🙁

At least I still remember a little something, even without a time capsule bag: Sometimes it was chain letters, sometimes an answer to the question: “Do we secretly go smoke during the break?” It was gossip or gangs formed. Depending on age. And of course the classic: “Do you want to go with me? Cross on: yes, no, maybe. “

I had classmates who were just as eager to write as I was, others got annoyed at some point, simply didn’t turn around despite hissing and tapping, the letter then had to take a different route. Perhaps a riskier one. Because there were also people who just read along cheekily. When I was very unlucky, the teacher intervened. She once said when she intercepted the umpteenth letter: “Judith, you will probably work at the post office one day.” She only half miscalculated. Because I really like to write and communicate.

Memories from all over the world (Alexandra Kratz)

I saved them all. And the most beautiful ones fill two large picture frames that are now hanging in the office and in the guest room. We’re talking about postcards that I collected when I was young. It is the view of the big wide world, there are many wonderful memories: of class and study trips, language trips and student exchanges and of course holidays on the beach and in the mountains. Everywhere I’ve been I’ve bought at least one postcard – not to write it, but just for myself.

Many of them feature cheesy sunsets. I guess I liked that back then. But there is also the beautiful image of a Venetian mask, the marmot in the Alps and the baseball game in Chicago. I didn’t buy all of the postcards in my shoebox and in the two picture frames myself. I actually got a lot of them from friends and relatives, in the traditional way by post. Because of course everyone knew about my passion back then.

Today I rarely get vacation cards. Too often it is a photo that is sent to my cell phone via Whatsapp, but still with nice words underneath, as it was on the back of the small, colorful cardboard. But these greetings are more fleeting than the postcards back then.