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♪ [music playing--"This Old Train" by Jeremy Taylor] ♪♪.
(male voice-over). A railway postal clerk's job
went far beyond simply delivering mail.
Everyday before going out on the train, clerks prepared postal
labels, facing slips, and other materials needed in addition
to the everday preparation was the studying.
Every six months, clerks were tested on maps of railway routes
and towns, also known as schemes and had to receive a 97%
or higher in order to keep their job.
(Mr. Liszewski). You showed up usually
about two hours ahead of time because you had
to get the railroad car ready to start working.
You had to put the pouches up and labels in the holders
and stuff, then if there was post office brought mail over
early you start working on it.
(Mr. Collins). We'd work it varied
but straight four hours we'd work in the station
up there in Chicago.
We'd work before the train left.
(Mr. Hight). Well, we had schemes
which was like the state you were studying,
they called that a scheme.
And they had the routes had another book which had routes
in it, the trains routes, the truck routes that you
would connect to.
(Mr. Glasco). The schemes that you studied
from they gave you a printed book with every town
and every route that it would dispatched over
but they changed quite frequently and every week
you would get a change sheet.
You had to cut those out and paste them over the ones that
were in the book so that you stayed up to date on how
the mail went.
You take that, then preparing your labels and your
facing slips and everything for it.
They didn't pay you for anything that you didn't earn.
(Mr. Liszewski). Well, you had to do
a lot of studying.
You know the cards you had to study them on your own time
at home.
You had to take a test like it was usually every six months.
You know, a state or a city and basically you just had
to memorize them.
(Mr. Hight). Had one of those
big maps hanging on the wall and a box
of cards which is about a thousand cards per box.
And you study and you study and you would take the card
and see if you could find it on the map.
And after you studied for a long time, just as soon as you looked
at the card you knew where it was on the map.
(Mr. Moody). Well, we had to learn
all the towns in every state on our line.
From Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana,
Ohio, New York state, Massachusetts and depends
on what job you was on whether you was working letters,
your working paper and parcel post or doing the local and you
had to take a test every six months and you had to pass,
I think, 97% of it.
And you had study cards, little cards that told you the name
of the town and on the back of them was where the mail went,
certain lines or such.
(Mr. W. Waldman). That's why you got paid
for like 48 minutes that was an hour because
you had to do so much studying and also keep your schemes
up your schedules and then you had to get your supplies
like your labels stamped up and your, if you were working
a pouch or rack or paper case you had to get your labels
stamped up and laid out to label the things up.
So there was quite a bit to do on your days off also.
(Mr. Mitchell). Those labels you'd set them up
so they would just run right in your case.
After you hung your case you just run your labels in,
you had your facing slips stamped up.
(Mr. W. Waldman). But each label
or each facing slip you stamped it with the train
and number and your date and your name on it so if there
was mistakes they traced it back to you, you know.
(Mr. Bliss). You just studied hard
and my favorite way of studying was unique.
I would lay at home in the daytime, my wife was working
and the kids were in school and I would lay at home
on the davenport with this box, with these cards and flip them
and flip them and flip them and I would have the record player
or the radio on real low just barely hear it, just low
and then I'd get tired and I'd fall asleep a few minutes then
pick up and start on these cards again.
And you had to study them just like, just like this and then
you got to the point where you thought you were capable
of casing the cards which was putting it in the little cases
out here and then put them in the right spots there and it was
the easiest way for me to do it.
(Mr. Mitchell). While I was up
on my layover in Chicago, I would study up there.
And the thing to do is you just pick out a state you've got
to have some kind of way to memorize it.
Well, we make up little stories you know.
That little story would help you a lot.
Use all the names of towns went to certain places you know.
Course lot of the stories didn't make sense to other people but.
(Mr. Glasco). A lot of hard studying.
I didn't have a good memory and I studied very hard.
It wasn't hard to do, I mean you commit yourself to it,
you love your job.
If you are going to stay with the job you need to know what
they are trying to train you by doing exams.
And so I think I aced practically every one I took.
I don't say I could work all the mail for that town,
but I could get by with the exams.
♪ [music playing--"This Old Train" by Jeremy Taylor] ♪♪.