Post Office

March 20th, 2006

Ever gone to a government office lately? Yes? Did you notice anything? I mean, besides the slow service. Anything?

I went to the local post office a couple of weeks ago to inquire on the requirement for getting my own P.O. box. I asked the first person I saw at the desk as to who to inquire about the requirements. I was told to go to the second floor. “Second floor?” I said as looked around for a staircase or an elevator. I didn’t see anything of a case resembling an ascending device or place so I became worried. I looked around and tried to see who among the employees there looked friendly enough to ask my stupid question as to how to get to the second floor.

As I was studying the faces of the employees, I saw some of them were wearing wearing frowns, looking impatient, or just plain tired (it was, aftel all, late in the afternoon). I’ve also noticed that most were women, in the forties or even fifties; maybe even some who looked like their retirement was only a year away. I then remembered my public school teachers, the employees at the professional licensing agency where I got my license as an engineer, the voting precinct in our minicipality and then the postal service employees.

So I asked myself a question. Is this what happens to elderly females in our country who are below the middle class but above the lowest class? If this is an inevitability, I shudder at the realization.