Deciphering address just part of the job for these clerks
Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Feb 07/01) - Addressing a letter is almost automatic.
Just write the address on the envelope, lick and stick the stamp, and then put the envelope in a mailbox or give it to the smiling person behind the counter. It disappears, leaving you calm, content, and free in the faith that your letter or parcel somehow finds its way to the right destination.
And it almost always does.
We all have horror stories about how long it took a letter to get from here to there, but have you ever wondered about the things postal clerks have to deal with?
Behind the postal veil are a group of civil servants who shuffle, select and file your mail and overcome sometimes vexing conundrums to get the mail where it needs to go.
At the Yellowknife Canada Post sorting station on Bristol Road, postal clerks solve riddles that would befuddle the sphinx.
"A few years ago we got one that read, 'Anne's sister who lives in the green house on the corner on some street,'" said Michelle Roussy.
"Our postmaster wanted to deliver it and we found out the letter was for someone in Hay River and we got it there," said Roussy.
Sometimes these clerks have to guess what the sender means on the address instead of going strictly by what is written.
"Sometimes people write Cow Road for Con Road or Big Elbow for Bigalow," said Nancy McCurdy.
"Usually people make mistakes because they hear it on the phone and write it down wrong."
Yellowknife postal clerks also get misdirected mail addressed for places half a world away.
"We get Australian mail and Chinese mail," said Margaret Beckwith. "Both China and Australia have a 'Northwest Territories."
So how does a sender in Canada avoid having their letter addressed to an address in Canada's Northwest Territories end up in the outback or confiscated from a Falun Gong member after a crackdown?
"The postal code is the most important thing," said McCurdy.
