Many years ago, back in the early days of married life when money was something only other people had, all our outgoing Christmas cards went missing. I had spent hours writing them out, used the housekeeping to buy stamps, then posted them in a postbox in a nearby village. The cards never arrived, and I was forced to dig deeper into the housekeeping to buy more cards and stamps. I never could understand how every single card could simply vanish. There must have been some mischief at work, surely?
Well, maybe not. Bizarrely, it seems the Post Office does sometimes entirely forget about whole post boxes, in one case for twenty three years! According to the story on the Telegraph's website today, workmen renovating Birmingham New Street Station discovered a post box, still full of letters awaiting collection: Forgotten Train Station Post Box
The Post Office are now endeavouring to deliver the letters, but I wonder how many will find their intended recipient after so long. Thinking back to our Christmas cards, most of the recipients have moved house since they were sent, some, sadly, are no longer with us.
The idea of receiving a letter from the past is an intriguing one: where is the sender now? did they fall out with the recipient over the lack of response to the letter that didn't arrive? were deals lost? did someone miss an urgent call for help?
A whole post box of twenty three year old letters - how many stories are in there?
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