>Just a little...How'd it come, snail mail. I used to work in downtown Chicago for an educational film distributor. We sent the films via Parcel Post (U.S. Snail, IOW). We had a pickup service that took the films to the Main Chicago branch. One time it took 10 days to go from there to the University of Illinois. I should point out that it was the University of Illinoi at Chicago Circle, which is two blocks from the main branch.

It wasn't the delivery service that was a problem, but the order was somehow lost for awhile.

I'm not surprised about your Parcel Post tall tale. In our weekly newspaper business in Alabama we often saw 5 - 7 day delivery times for communities just minutes from us AFTER the zip code system was established.

Before zip code, there were lots of little "star routes" from every community to nearby communities that were very efficient. Zip code changed all that. The star route from Roanoke, AL to Franklin, GA (less than 20 miles) was replaced with Roanoke -> Anniston (SCF) -> Birmingham -> Atlanta -> someOtherCity (SCF) -> Franklin.

A shorter star route from Roanoke to Standing Rock (less than 8 miles, but in other Sectional Center territory) had to go Roanoke -> Anniston (SCF) -> Birmingham -> Opelika (SCF) -> Standing Rock. We went from same-day delivery to 5 days!

That may have been made a little more efficient in recent years, but that's the way the ZIPCODE system started out.