Snail Mail for Millenials

It has come to my attention that we failed our children in at least one life lesson: how to use the United States Postal Service (USPS or "snail mail").  There is ample evidence that we did not cover this life skill and I thought you might be in the same boat.  If it hasn't become apparent to you yet, I promise you--it will.  My gift to you this Christmas is this 2013 Snail Mail for Millenials.  Share this with your children if you feel they might benefit.  There will be a test later.

The USPS is an independent agency of the federal government.  It moves paper and packages from your house to mine.  It's pretty efficient and cost effective especially when you consider what its customers ask of it sometimes.  However, for many people, going to the post office personally can be challenging--like spending Thanksgiving night with your parents.

Despite current technologies, there will be a need for this service for the foreseeable future.  So buckle down and learn how to use it.  Stop calling your mother while she is in the cemetery to ask "how do I send this phone back again?  I'm at the post office and the lady says she can't help me.  I have the phone right here in my hand.  What's the problem?"

Sorry, I wandered a little bit there.  When you need to send mail out--like a birthday card to your father or a wedding invitation -- you'll need envelopes, addresses and stamps.  An envelope needs to be addressed to the desired recipient.  Put this in the middle of the envelope when it is in landscape format. 

There should be 3 lines: the first is the person's name (first AND last is helpful).  The 2nd is the street address and the 3rd is City State Zip.  It's a little like sharing on Facebook--you have to find the person by name with whom you want to share that crazy link.   This information should be clearly written to be legible by your most elderly aunt.  The print should be in contrast to the envelope (white envelope: blue or black ink creates contrast).  Avoid using gold ink on a gold envelope for example. 

You MUST add postage.  One Forever stamp per envelope is generally sufficient.  Put the stamp in the upper right hand corner without obliterating any portion of the TO address.

This is a "Forever" stamp.  You can use it Forever, I guess.  Currently they cost 46 cents each.  It will not go down.  You can pay 46 cents for this bonsai stamp today and use it a year or two from now when the cost of a stamp is 48 cents.  Cha Ching! Of course, you will not be able to find this stamp when you need it and will have to purchase some anyhow. 

As millenials, you will not have that precious experience of looking across the table at a friend and saying "Remember when we stamps were 6 cents?" while smiling fondly and shaking your head.  You'll never know how much it cost to send that envelope because the stamp won't tell you.  Back in the olden days, looking at the stamp could tell you quite a story:

Yes, this was in my lifetime thank you very much.

A third item on an envelope is the return address found in the upper left corner.  Contrary to popular opinion, a return address is not mandatory but is quite helpful if you haven't followed USPS guidelines to the T.  The return address is your name, street address and city state zip.  You'll get the envelope back if you fail one of the postal guidelines. 

The USPS has a great deal in common with the TSA in that the rules change regularly and you never quite know what new thing will be disallowed (and it's always something new that you CAN'T do--never something new that you CAN do).  If  you send a sister pin out without a return address because you want to surprise your sister, it can't come back to you because you aren't allowed to send pins through the mail and you'll never know your sisters did not get theirs unless they come back to you with a nasty note from our friends at the post office. Again, I wandered a little there.  Sorry.

Then you have to put the letter in a mailbox or give it to the person manning the desk at the post office.

 That's what these blue boxes are for--you can drop your letters in these to mail them OR

 use your own mailbox.  It helps to put the little flag up to let the carrier know there's something in there for him to pick up.  It's also a good way for you to tell if your own mail has been delivered yet since the postman will put the flag back down after he picks up your mail.

Mailing packages follow similar guidelines.  You need postage, an address and a properly sealed package.  You may re-use boxes you might already have if you scribble out any barcodes and do your best to remove any labeling that might cause confusion. 

Seal it up really well --the kind of sealing up that makes people nuts when they try to open it.  The USPS designed the rules that way.  Usually you put the name and address on the top of the box--I like to use a clean sheet of paper so it stands out.

Then you're probably going to have to take the package to the post office to pay the postage and have them put it on their trucks.  This can be tricky sometimes as postal hours can be a little finicky:

Ha Ha!  Just kidding, USPS!  I'm feeling like the NSA might be lurking in blog posts so ..... just kidding :)
Merry Christmas to you and yours.  See most of you soon!

HIdden Gems

We like Dunkin Donuts coffee.  We especially like to have some when we travel.  So often do we find ourselves seeking that lovely exit sign with the DD emblem, that I installed an app to help us find them when we travel.  Yesterday I drove to Albany for a meeting and noticed that our GPS indicates where the Dunkin Donuts are located on our route!!!  I didn't know our little machine did that.  It was a nice little treat--a hidden gem.

As I was trying to land on a subject for this blog post, I thought I might treat you to some hidden gems.  But I was having a little trouble finding enough to really interest you UNTIL I went back to the original drawing board and opened up my "Dalpiaz" file.  A real file stuffed with papers and notes about the Dalpiaz family in general.  It's good practice to go through such information once in a while for just this reason.  I found some interesting little tidbits to share with you that I had forgotten I had.

The tidbit that started me on this journey, oddly enough, was the 1940 census record for your mother and Uncle Johnny living with their grandparents.

If you look at this more closely, you'll see that your Uncle Andrew Manzelli was a painter for the World's Fair.  As I'm sure you know, the 1939 World's Fair was held in Flushing and was called "Building the World of Tomorrow".    This hopeful sounding title apparently did not help Andrew's brother Joseph (age 29) and sister Madeline (age 23) obtain similar jobs with the World's Fair as their occupation as "New Worker" in this census indicated they were seeking work and had no previous work experience.  In the previous census (1930), Andrew was a painter and Joseph is listed as a "junk auto wrecker"-- a little amusing since his brother Albert was a chauffer!  Anyhow, I found that little tie to American history very interesting and thought you would as well.

Other tidbits include my finding (re-viewing previously obtained stuff) that some of the Dalpiaz immigrants entered the county through Boston.  I generally automatically assume they came through Ellis Island.  I believe this is a common misconception and I have now been reminded to be more vigilant.  Your grandfather's sister Erminia may have been one such case. She arrived in Boston in 1921 with at least 3 others from Tassullo.

I may have shared this previously, but perhaps you could use the same kind of reminder as I.  In some 1997 correspondence with a guy that has Val di Non family, I learned that "Apparently the Dalpiaz name was first noted in Val Di Non records in the 1500s and there have been arguments about itsorigins.  One historian said it came from the name Dalla Piazza (on the square).  I have seen this version.  Another historian states that it originated from the German Der Platz."  Huh.  German would be interesting, right?

I also came across handwritten notes (my notes) with names and death dates.  I think I took these from Mass cards at 21 Duffin but I don't exactly remember.  Anyhow, these notes cleared up a couple of little hanging details for me such as the death date for Thomas Albertini, Uncle Lou and Uncle Tommy's father.  It kills me when I find I've had this information all along!!!  Elizabeth V. Dalpiaz was also on this paper having died Sept 18 1976 and I found another piece of paper I'd printed out a while ago for her obituary! Now I can link the two definitively with "your" Dalpiaz clan.  She was cousin Victor's wife.  There is also a Fred Dalpiaz (d Sept 29 1986)--not sure how he fits in yet.  Anyone know?

It was a great blessing to go back through this folder after such a long time.  I confirmed some other details and will be working to add names and dates to the family tree.  I confirmed (once again) how valuable Aunt Josie and Aunt Rose's recollections are.  Can't wait to see Aunt Rose and Uncle Lou again for this very reason.

Countdown to Christmas is in full swing and I know everyone is very busy.  We plan to travel to Long Island for the festivities on Christmas Eve.  Merry Christmas to all. 

Welcome to December.  I hope Robert is healing nicely from his recent surgery.  Happy birthday to Jake in just a few days!  I've been baking up a storm these last couple of days and contemplating Christmas.  Hard not to when you're up to your elbows in your 5th batch of cookies.  It's coming up fast but this year I'm in the holiday spirit in ways I haven't been in recent years. What a relief since I'd been wondering about myself.  Back on track for now and prepping for the holidays along with the rest of the family.

I recently saw that 2013 is a year in which none of the numerals repeat themselves.  This has not been so since 1987.  (Good evidence right here that I spend way too much time surfing the web.)  So I thought it would be fun to take a little walk down memory lane to 1987 and compare it to 2013.

Ronald Reagan was president and the New York Giants beat Denver in the Super Bowl back in the day when the Super Bowl was held in January :)  Les Miserables and Married with Children debuted speaking to the social conscience of the day.  Mark McGwire is a rookie and Jessica McClure falls down a well which captivates the media for the next several days as we all watched anxiously. 

On the local front, James and I had been married two years and learned we were expecting Amy that year. 

This is where we lived that year.  I liked that car but James didn't like that it was a Dodge.

 

We went to Florida to spend Thanksgiving with my grandmother.  We vowed never ever to travel by air on Thanksgiving weekend.  What a nightmare.

We chaperoned the senior trip to Disney World that year--I believe this was my first visit to the happiest place on Earth.

Aunt Rose, Grandma and Michelle at Linda's baby shower.  This is a nice picture of them all.

Brad's baptism near the end of 1987

And a repeat of this classic from 1987 Christmas at 21 Duffin

2013.  Barack Obama is POTUS -- something I wonder if Reagan ever considered might happen.  The Baltimore Ravens won the Super Bowl in New Orleans and they weren't even a team yet in 1987.  Cinderella debuted on Broadway and we went to see it.  It did surprisingly well even garnering some Tony nominations and winning one for costume design.  The Goldbergs debuted on network TV--a show ABOUT the 80s.  Yikes.  And the media event of the year was probably the Baby Watch for young Prince George.  Nothing like royal weddings and babies to capture media attention.

We welcomed Robinson to the family in 2013.  New Dalpiaz homesteads were established with their own pieces of the American dream--congrats to Jake and Lindsay; Brian and Monet and Jesse and Lindsay.  Of course, we got to live our dream (well, my dream) to visit Ireland and Nick and Kathleen got to achieve their dream trip to Erie PA (hahaha).  AND I RETIRED.

This is what that other picture looks like with a little Google 2013 magic thrown in.  This is a .gif and there's a current controversy about proper pronunciation.  I go with the hard "g".  Anyhow, isn't this cool?

 Erie summer 2013--this is one of Nick's pictures.  I was pretty sure he wouldn't mind even if he's not in it.  Ryan was able to join the fun and Michael got to meet some of the family.

Thanks to Jean for putting together a little reunion over the summer.  It was a great time.  I always like these pictures where no one is paying attention yet.  They make me smile, as this one does.

So, 2014 will be another year in which the numerals do not repeat but don't expect another post comparing it with 1987!  But, I do wish you all a grand and glorious 2014.  It looks to be a year to remember for the Dalpiaz clan--especially the Hartmans!