Where do our letters go? The postal system. (1956)

[Music] um there's going to be a birthday party mother and carolyn know about it but it's going to be a surprise for jerry he's outside playing he's the one wearing the coonskin cap jerry doesn't know what mother and carolyn are doing do you of course they're sending out invitations to the party all they have left to do is put each invitation inside an envelope wet the flap of the envelope and seal it so the invitation won't fall out and what else is needed a stamp they have to put a stamp on each envelope we pay for mail service when we pay for the stamps now this invitation is ready to be mailed it has the name of one of jerry's friends the friends street address and the town and state where he lives all this is necessary if mail is to get where we want it to go most of the invitations are going to children who live in our town but this one is going out of town to jerry's cousin billy green he lives on a farm that is on a rural delivery route near another town a few miles away the invitation will get to billy because the right address is on the envelope now all the invitations are ready to be mailed and there's just time it's ten minutes to four the mail is collected from the corner mailbox at four o'clock so carolyn hurries to put on her coat with the invitations hidden inside a paper bag jerry won't see them when carolyn goes by on her way to the mailbox soon the invitations will be on their way will jerry see carolyn carrying the bag and wonder what's in it no he's too busy playing jerry hasn't guessed the secret carolyn will make sure that all the invitations go inside the mailbox what will happen to them now carolyn doesn't know she just knows they will get to where they're sent but we can find out here comes a mail truck the driver is a mailman who gathers letters and packages that people have mailed he stops at mailboxes all over town and takes the mail out of them look there are the invitations this mailman will take the mail from the mailboxes to the post office let's follow along and see what happens this is our town post office and here's the mail truck that has the invitations what will happen to them inside the post office let's see the invitations to jerry's party are in this bag of mail the people who work in the post office will help the invitations get to jerry's friends see the invitations they are ready to go through the canceling machine this machine marks the stamp on every letter to show that the stamp has been used and cannot be used again now the invitations have been cancelled where will they go next they go here all the letters are sorted here and put into various boxes according to where they are going all the mail for our town is put in a box marked local but the invitation to jerry's cousin goes in a different box because it will be sent to a different town now the mail that will stay in our town must be sorted again each of these boxes is for a different mail route in our town the mail is sorted so that each mailman will get only the mail that goes to people on his mail route the invitations to the children in our town are being sorted now meanwhile the first clerk is taking care of the mail that goes out of town tying together all the letters that go to the same town there's the invitation to jerry's cousin billy it's in the mail sack that will go on a train to the town near the farm where billy lives the other sacks of mail will go to different places all over the country a short time later at the railroad station some of the mail for out of town is placed aboard a mail car in a train the invitation to jerry's cousin is in the last sack soon the train is on its way carrying the mail in the mail car as the train moves along the mail clerk sort the mail that was put aboard these mail sacks and these boxes are for different places along the way there's the invitation to jerry's cousin in the box with other mail for the same town early the next morning at the post office in our town each mailman sorts the mail he will deliver he arranges it by streets and house number there's one of the invitations and another soon jerry's friends will have them now the mailman has finished sorting the mail for his route he's ready to go here he comes this is the way all the invitations to children in our town will be delivered isn't it wonderful that we can send mail and have it delivered right to where we sent it and it costs us only the price of a stamp a few miles away from our town the invitation to jerry's cousin bill is being delivered a rural delivery mail carrier has brought it from the town to which the train carried it out to the mailbox on the farm where bill lives soon bill will have it his mother will take it to him now here's a town that's nearly a thousand miles from our town something is happening here in the post office jerry's aunt margaret is sending him a birthday present by air mail and special delivery so it will get to him quickly the mail clerk weighs the package to find out how much postage aunt margaret will have to pay airmail costs more than regular mail and there's an extra charge for special delivery the package is addressed correctly and now with the right amount of stamps on it it will get to jerry and it will go by air mail special delivery soon an airplane is leaving at margaret's town carrying the present for jerry and other mail that is being sent by air at last it is jerry's birthday and up in his apartment they're having the party it was a wonderful surprise for jerry but he has another surprise coming for a special delivery mailman is just leaving the post office to make some deliveries a little while later they're still having fun at jerry's surprise birthday party when someone's at the door can you guess who it is it's the special delivery mailman he's brought jerry's present from aunt margaret that came nearly a thousand miles by air mail [Music] now jerry can see what aunt margaret said [Music] it's a box but what can be in the box stationary and look it has jerry's name and address printed on the paper now jerry will write many letters to his friends and relatives the mail helped jerry have a surprise party and helped him get a surprise birthday present but we all know that the mail helps us all all the time and we can depend on it too