Friday, January 18, 2013

Percy's Address

Percy gets his mail at the Post Office; the same place small town America has been getting their mail for the last 150 years. 

In most small towns people use the post office as the ad hoc town center. A place where gossip is heard, bills are paid, and Sunday dinner is planned. 

A simple brick building where new friends are made and old ones reacquainted with.



You might not know this, but the FBI stopped posting wanted posters in Untied State Post Offices in 2010. This of course didn't go unnoticed by Percy Craven, who wrote a letter to the FBI reminding them that Eric Rudolph would never have been caught had it not been for the FBI wanted poster in the Murphy North Carolina US Post Office. Percy never got a reply.

His mailing address for his lake house is a Post Office Box in Hayesville, NC. Percy stops their at least every other day and always on Saturdays.

But some folks insist on a street address, but when he tells them Percy Craven Lake Chatuge, North Carolina 28904, they get antsy. They want a street number and street name.

He tells them he doesn't have a number and that his road doesn't have a name. But folks are stubborn so he ends up telling them some crazy address like 1776 Craven Lane, Building 17, Suite 76 Haynesville, NC 28904 and since that fits into their computer logic, all is well.

Truth be told both the UPS guy and the FedEx lady know where Percy lives, they know when he is in town and when he's away.

If he's out fishing they just open the door and set the package on the kitchen counter, click a couple of boxes on their hand held computer and go on about their day.

If he's there they open the door put the package on the kitchen counter and chat a spell.

Russell the UPS guy gets a laugh out of some of the outlandish addresses Percy gives people.

He all-time favorite is:

Central Intelligence Agency
Counter Terrorism Unit
3rd Floor, Building 37
Attention J. Edgar Hoover
100 Main Street
Haysville, NC 28904


Says Russell, "The minute I saw CIA I knew it was for Percy".


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Poor Percy doesn't know the street address of his own Post Office? It's:
136 Sanderson Street

Anonymous said...

Apparently no one told him how "General Delivery" works. That's how people hiking the Appalachian Trail get their maildrops delivered to them along the trail. Pretty simple concept.

Anonymous said...

I have sort of the same trouble. I live on Lake Wylie on the NC side. We have rural boxes and the crooks steal our mail.

Since I work in Clover, SC I have a PO Box there. Drives me crazy that people think I am a scam because I live in NC but get my mail in SC.

Anonymous said...

Are you sure? There are no more wanted top ten fugitives and stuff from the FBI at the Post Office?

Anonymous said...

I think that a while back, more than 5 years but I do not remember when, the Post Office mandated (Federal Law?) that every street or road in the US have a name and every building or property have a number. Somewhere there is a record of all these roads with names for them and address numbers for the properties. In a small town where everybody knows everything about everyone else, it does not seem to change, but eventually everything will be formal proper addresses or mail will not be delivered.

Anonymous said...

Small town life will soon pass even Percy Craven by, isn't Haynesville were Tiger Wood was building a golf course?