If your childhood was anything like mine, your parents would often threaten to box you up and send you away if you misbehaved. I took this particular threat with a pinch of salt despite believing that my eyes would become square if I sat too close to the television and that my inappropriate facial expressions would become permanent if the wind changed. I didn’t believe that any reputable courier would actually parcel me up and send me on my way. However, I was wrong to take the threat so lightly; there was a time when parents did indeed try their luck at mailing their children as the following harrowing, or adorable, depending on how you look at it, examples prove.
On New Year’s Day in the United States in 1913, the Post Office started to offer the shipping of large packages via their Parcel Post service. An innovation at the time, the new service provided millions of Americans with the chance to send and receive large parcels allowing mail-order companies, such as Sears, to ship items weighing up to 11lbs to customers in rural as well as suburban areas for the very first time. It sounded great in principle, but what the Post Office didn’t foresee was what some Americans would attempt to send. Legal ambiguity and a lack of concrete legislation meant that customers took a mile from an inch and attempted to send more precious cargo than anyone had imagined – their kids!
Mere weeks after the Post Office began to offer this service, a couple based in Ohio, Mathilda and Jesse Beagle, mailed their baby son James to his grandmother, a few miles away in neighbouring Batavia. James was just eight months old at the time and, luckily for them, fell under the 11lb weight limit. James’ delivery was a bargain for the Beagles, costing them a very reasonable fifteen cents in postage. They sent James on his way after insuring him for $50, or just under $1,400 in today’s money, and he arrived safely at his grandmother’s home. The bizarre incident made headlines in newspapers across America and inspired other doting parents to do the same with several similar successful attempts following.
In 1914, five-year-old Charlotte May Pierstorff was mailed to her grandparents 73 miles away from her home in Grangeville, Idaho. After her parents had promised May the chance to visit her granny, they were determined to deliver on their vow, but with the cost of travel at a whopping $1.55 a ticket and money being tight, they had to resort to a more inventive means of getting her to her destination. After noticing that the cost of mail was a third of the price of a train ticket, her mother came up with the idea to mail May, via train, to her welcoming grandparents. The story eventually became the subject of a book, ‘Mailing May’, which went on to become the most famous book ever written about a child being sent as post, it was also the only one at the time of writing; JK Rowling, we’re looking at you to take up the mantle. Unfortunately, we have no confirmation whether or not the trip was worth it for May, but it did give her parents a nice break.
At bakergoodchild we do not offer a child mailing service *shakes fist at the nanny state*. However, we can print, mail and post anything within the confines of the law. Targeted direct mail marketing continues to be one of the most effective ways of reaching your audience. So, if you’d like to find out what we can do for your business, get in touch with us today and one of our team will assist you with whatever your request might be (children aside).
