As much as I hate to, there are some days when I have to go to the post office. I avoid the place like I would avoid pestilence and plague. It is my least favorite place to be. My reluctance might have to do with a little post-traumatic stress syndrome from my days working there, or it could have more to do with the fact that parking is treacherous (few spots, lots of ticket-writing parking gestapo), the construction is horrific (road and new Sonic drive-in going up right across the street) or the fact that even in the middle of summer, in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week, the line stretches out the door like it’s the Monday before Christmas and the clerks are slower than a parade of slugs traveling single file down the garden path.
It is, of course, the Royal Oak Post Office. Royal Oak – as in classically trendy – not fabulously fashionable like neighboring über-liberal Ferndale, but a haven nonetheless for smug yuppie puppies. The Royal Oak Post Office was once the setting for an employee who happened to go postal there, shooting the place up one morning just before 9. (Don’t worry; they never shoot at customers, just at each other.) The front of the building attracts a myriad of humanity – neighbors, union workers, Santa Claus, politicians, petition passers, and Salvation Army bell ringers. That’s because this post office – being the only one in town – is the hub of the community.
I usually ignore those imploring a signature here or there. I’m ashamed to say I have turned away from the homeless woman who sleeps in the lobby at night. I don’t want to talk to union members or local politicians. I just want to get in, get out, and quickly put as much distance between that putrid yellow brick building and me as I can without getting pulled over for a speeding ticket.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Jordan Richardson
I’ve often wondered why liberals are so angry
I've often wondered why conservatives are so stupid and why housewives are such losers, but that's just me.
Oh wait, stereotypes are dumb.
2 - El Bicho
If the window clerks had been on amphetamines and Red Bull, I seriously doubt you would have gone through the line quicker.
"liberals...have been in power now for the last four years"
Do you actually believe this Angry Young Liberal (you left off black although I know it's implied) Man is in power?
What strikes me even odder is "cracker" and "white supremists" (did he make up that word or you?) are usually used in relation to white people, but in your story the man used it in relation to a black woman. Is that right? You also quoted him saying "They wanted me to sign a petition!" so not only can't he tell skin number but he can't count. If you say so.
3 - roger nowosielski
Actually, a very well written piece, Joanne, in my opinion one of your best.
But I can understand Jordan's point. Why this need to refer to people in terms of rather useless if not obsolete political terms? Why a liberal?
Understandably, people are angry on both sides of the political divide, and there are good many reasons why they ought to be. Things are going right for the country and the world at large. Along with economic crisis, we're experiencing a moral crisis, both as individuals and as a people. The old values are shattered for many, they see no viable replacement, most are at a loss, feeling as though the ground is disappearing from under their feet.
That's the human story, Joanne, the kind of tack you could have taken, rather than trying to narrow it down to scoring political point. The BC Politics section is full of hacks on both sides of the isle. After a while, it's not only boring but pointless.
So yes, I'm rooting for a refreshing view on things, one that would accommodate all of us as people, rather than the usual and stale finger-pointing. We've had enough of that, and given the present times, we need a more comprehensive outlook.
I know you can do it.
4 - Clavos
"skin number???"
5 - roger nowosielski
Kind of gradation, I suppose, on a scale from one to ten.
6 - zingzing
i was waiting for someone to hop on the "skin number" thing. it's like raping a drunk girl. too damn easy. of course, clavos, you can figure out what he means, yes? and you can see how it happened, right?
did figure you to be the one who'd point out the obvious, but then again...
7 - zingzing
overall, this piece strikes me as a bit odd... a "liberal" crazy enough to make a scene in the post office, complete with made-up words and black "crackers" outside and how "they," who happen to be singular in number (and "little" and "old"), "take [their life into [their] own hands" by daring to disagree with the "so angry" typical leftist who will "grouse" on in front of a bunch of people they don't know about political shit...
seriously, you saw something strange. a crazy person who was disagreeing with another person who didn't give a shit about what she was hocking. if you want to draw conclusions, go right ahead. it would just be typical. and it would also be meaningless. neither of those people represent what you're trying to make them represent.
8 - Clavos
[edited for being beyond the pale]
did figure you to be the one who'd point out the obvious
I do that just for you, zing -- just so you can get your rocks off.
9 - El Bicho
Pedant. Although the question marks should go outside the quotation marks if you want to get technical, which I know you do.
10 - STM
What's wrong with tea and crackers?
11 - STM
Rog: "So yes, I'm rooting for a refreshing view on things".
We're all rooting for that, Rog.
12 - Joanne Huspek
Clarification Station: Angry Liberal Man - Definitely uber WHITE.
Congress for the last four years - Definitely DEMOCRAT.
I thought it ironic that the Angry Young Liberal Man called this little, old African-American grandmother a tea-bagging cracker, which is why I wrote this piece.
13 - Joanne Huspek
Oh, and another clarification for Jordan:
I am NOT a conservative, nor am I a HOUSEWIFE.
14 - Joanne Huspek
Oh, yes, and El Bicho, ALL of those words quoted were his words, not mine.
15 - handyguy
Joanne: I don't know why you reject the 'conservative' description. But I have never known you to write a liberal or even centrist word on this site, so it's understandable how some of us would come to that conclusion.
16 - Clavos
@#9:
Props, EB! You out-pedanted even me...
17 - Dr Dreadful
I wouldn't say the Post Office is the most horrible place on Earth.
There's the INS, for example, which admittedly most here won't have had experience of. But, if you have a hankering to wait in line for hours just to get through the office door and then be treated like a criminal, I highly recommend it. I suppose you could always renounce your citizenship and then reapply...
But at least at the INS they treat you like a criminal politely. For the absolute grungiest experience, the DMV can't be beat. Especially because it seems to have a semi-permanent, shall we say... distinctively coiffured... population.
(Shit, that reminds me. My driver's license is up for renewal in a month or two. Where's that whiskey zing was talking about?)
18 - Arch Conservative
"I wouldn't say the Post Office is the most horrible place on Earth."
Nor would I dreadful. If I had to guess, although I've never been there I'd say the most horrible palce one earth would be our current Secretary of State's boudoir after she's kicked back a couple of mai tai's and has begun to feel particularly randy.
Yep, most horrible place on earth, either that or New Jersey.
19 - roger nowosielski
Do you have anything against mai tais, Archie?
And what's wrong with a disorderly boudoir? After all, you can always turn off the lights.
I don't think, besides, that Hillary is as unattractive as you make her out to be, in spite of her ankles. She's got a head on her shoulders - more so than Sister Sarah, I daresay - and I find this attractive in women. After all, Archie, isn't the mind the greatest sex organ?
20 - Dr Dreadful
Yep, most horrible place on earth, either that or New Jersey.
Or a Raiders home game.
21 - Dan(Miller)
I agree that Secretary Clinton is relatively attractive.
Dan(Miller)
22 - roger nowosielski
I suspected a dig and you didn't disappoint me.
23 - Clavos
Poor Helen!
Besides being a liberal, she's ugly...
OTOH, the handsome president DOES have his arm around her...
24 - roger nowosielski
"Ugly as sin," you should have said, Clavos; but you couldn't venture that far in misrepresenting yourself as a cracker.
Again, all the signs of a "closet intellectual."
25 - Dr Dreadful
Is her schnozz really that big?
And why is Barack hogging all the cakes?