Mail Ma’am – July 6, 1968

When it comes to the delivery of the U. S. Mail, there have been female mail carriers since the 1800s (according to this Wiki entry).
But when I was growing up in Lorain in the 1960s, I don’t think it was very common. The mailman who walked our route was usually a tanned, older man, wearing a uniform. In the summer, they usually adopted the safari look with a pith helmet.

It seems to me that it wasn’t until much later that many of the carriers walking around the city were young women. I could be wrong.

Anyway, the spectacle of a young, attractive female mail carrier (even if she was just a summer employee) was apparently unusual enough to warrant a photo, as seen above in the item that appeared in the Journal on July 6, 1968. Marie Cunningham was the pretty junior from Bowling Green University helping out for the summer.

I know – the photo and caption are a little politically incorrect by today’s standards. But it was all in fun in a much more innocent time.