Seven-Nine-Three-Three-Six

On Monday, we got an envelope in the mail that should never have come to the Boggy Thicket.  The street name Started with a C, but it was not Conners Road (our street) and the zip code only contained four digits –7336.

It was one of those envelopes with the two cellophane windows that show the FROM and TO addresses, and it contained a form that had been completed by a third grader.  The hand-printing was almost illegible – even by third grade standards – but the information visible through the windows let me form some quick conclusions.

• The little girl was in the third grade – there was a box checked that said so.
• Her T-shirt size was Small – that box was checked, too.
• Couldn’t read her first name, but the last name was Moreno, or something close to it.
• The printed return address on the form  was from an elementary school in Levelland, Texas - 79336, just west of Lubbock.
• The printed portion also said “Thank You for being my Sponsor.”

Based on that information, I’m pretty sure that the form was being sent to someone who was expected to sponsor the child in some local event, or at least, buy her a T-shirt.

Our five digit zip code is similar, 77336, but I don’t know why the Levelland Post Office would send the thing all the way to the other end of the state based on a four digit zip code that looked at least as much like theirs as mine.

The little girl prints on a pre-K level.  That, and the fact that she entered a four digit zip code when there were clearly five boxes for numbers, makes me wonder if she is somewhat impaired.  Even if she is, it is clearly no more so than the Levelland postal clerk that sent her letter to me.

I caught our mail delivery lady (postwoman? postperson?) as she completed circling our block and she took the letter back with her to be sent back to Levelland.

I can’t help wondering if the kid will ever get her shirt.