"Plus ça change" ... Some reminiscing about the days when "Snail" Mail wasn't.

In this case, the rest of the phrase ... "plus c'est la même chose" [the more it remains the same] doesn't apply.

"Disgusted with Third World Government Services" in today's Nassau Tribune writes that even his electric bill takes 20 days - 20 days! - between postmark and placement in his Post Office Box.

For those readers who are not familiar with the way things work here ... there is no home delivery of mail in the Bahamas. You either rent a box at the main post office or one of the satellites, or you get your mail via General Delivery. In either case you have to schedule mail pickup into your routine.

This is not necessarily a bad thing all around. My dad used to love his regular "hails" on his morning rounds downtown and as a boy I remember being with him as he and his friends exchanged updates about family, politics and even religion while clutching a handful of bills, letters and postcards.

It was a slower time, and "going to the post" was almost a social activity for some men. I guess the women visited at the grocery store - when men never ventured!

But I digress ... the point here is that there is no excuse for mail which is dropped off at the main post office - already franked - to take 20 days to make it from one part of the building (which ain't too big, folks) to the mailboxes.

I don't understand. The rest of the world has speeded up but what we now call "snail mail" has indeed slowed down.

35 years ago at college in Massachussets my Mom wrote a couple pages every Sunday afternoon . Dad mailed it on his Monday morning rounds before 7 a.m. and I got it on Thursday or Friday OF THE SAME WEEK!! I specifically remember being desperate for funds once, calling home on Saturday. Dad went to the Royal Bank of Canada Bay & Vic on Monday morning, bought the draft, mailed it and I got it on Friday.

Try that now.

When I was studying in Madrid letters from home took exactly a week. What was mailed here on Monday, reached there the next Monday. And I was living on the northwest outskirts of the city in the middle of the scrub.

[A funny aside ... my sister was also studying in Mass. at the time, so my mother wrote essentially the same letter to both of us using carbon paper ... added a personal note at the end, and mailed two separate letters. Kids today won't easily relate - as their mom's would likely type it into the PC and print out two crisp copies.]

The US isn't much better at this mail thing by the way. At work we get correspondence from mainland Europe or the UK within about a week. From Miami we're lucky to get it within 3. It just seems to hit the skids once it reaches MIA and "mañana" takes over!

So much for progress...