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Two In Tow & On The Go | Let’s talk about snail mail
When was the last time your kid addressed an envelope? Like, with the actual stamp and addresses in all the right places, then successfully placed it in a mailbox that wasn’t in your playroom?
… Exactly. Not that often. Snail mail has become a fading practice for many families with younger kids. So grab your nearest kiddo (well, don’t be weird about it) and settle in for a read-aloud about letters, stamps and fun while we revisit some basics about the United States Postal Service. Heck, I even threw in some free printables.
You can also consider the following content as a family-friendly primer to my next Behind the Finds column, which involves a very cool, very vintage thing Gig Harbor’s post office once did that I randomly stumbled upon … on eBay. Ah, service journalism meets local history rabbit hole. My love language.
Clara and Wyatt Clara in front of the Gig Harbor Post Office at 3118 Judson St.
The U.S. Postal Service
In 1775, Benjamin Franklin became America’s first Postmaster General, helping launch a nationwide mail system written into the U.S. Constitution. Its network of evolving postal routes and offices have linked Americans to their incoming and outgoing mail for the last 250 years. The agency saw a big change in 1970 when Congress reorganized the old “Post Office Department” into today’s United States Postal Service, an independent federal agency established on July 1, 1971. From horseback routes to barcode scanners to today’s online tracking, postal service has grown and adapted to keep pace with the public it serves. According to its anniversary materials, USPS milestones over the past half-century include expanded ZIP codes in 1983, its first website in 1994, Forever Stamps in 2007, and Every Door Direct Mail business marketing in more recent years.
The USPS primarily funds its operations through the sale of postage, products and services from its post office locations and its websites. In Gig Harbor, the current post office operates at 3118 Judson St. in the Peninsula Shopping Center. Nearby, there’s a USPS post office on Fox Island and several on the Key Peninsula. Gig Harbor’s post office has operated at other locations over the years. According to the USPS, today the Judson Street branch handles some of the daily mail services offered at other branches nationwide, but not all. To read about which ones, visit the Gig Harbor Post Office’s official webpage.
One standout service the Gig Harbor location provide, and perhaps at other local branches too when you check, is issuing burial flags to families of deceased veterans in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. These flags are typically used to drape over caskets and coffins; or to place with an urn. Collectively, officials say post offices nationwide issue nearly half a million of these veteran flags each year. Those seeking one can print the required forms from this USPS webpage, which also outlines additional instructions to follow before applicants can bring their completed paperwork into the Judson Street branch to process the request in person. Bonus: there’s no time limit for requesting one. Additional information on burial flags can be found at VA.Gov.
Free printables
This 40-page U.S. Postal Service Activity Book
For kids, the U.S. Postal Service offers a free 40-page kids activity book to print at home. “A Kids’ History of the United States Postal Service ” can be downloaded here.
2023 United States Postal Service
The booklet walks through nearly 250 years of mail-moving history, from the American Revolution to today, complete with photos, stories about the people (and the animals!) who carried the mail, plus mazes, paper airplanes, envelope-addressing challenges and a design-your-own-stamp page. #Lifeskills for the win.
I already know Clara would treat that stamp design page like a high-stakes art commission. Wyatt, meanwhile, would speed-run the mazes and call it a day.
Clara, age 11, in front of the Gig Harbor Post Office at 3118 Judson St. last May.
“We hope this book helps to teach kids about the important role the Postal Service played in uniting the nation,” postal officials said in a press release. Grandparents who still slide crisp $5 bills into birthday cards: This is your moment to fold in some other fun pages.
Letter Template
With any luck, completing the activity book (or finishing this very Gig Harbor Now column) ends with your kid wanting to head into town to drop a real letter into a real mailbox to a family member instead of swiping your phone for a distracted video chat of mostly comprised of making silly photo-filter faces.
In fact, I created a free printable just for the latter. I call it: Tonya’s Official Two in Tow Handwritten Letter Template. Creative, right? (This is why we leave the headline/naming skill to our editor).
My free Gig Harbor Post Office coloring page
Continue the printing party by downloading this snazzy coloring page I made of Gig Harbor’s very own post office building on Judson Street. “Made” is a fluid word here, by the way. What I actually did for the first time was prompt one of those online image generators to transform a real life photo of the Gig Harbor Post office into a cool line-drawn vector file. And it did the job. Then I brought it back over to my design program to add some final touches:
I think I’ll print off two of both for Clara and Wyatt to color and write some nice long letters to each of their grandparents.
But first, excuse me while I go see if we still own postage stamps.
Fun facts, postal style
While I’m digging through my junk drawers, here are some fun facts to enjoy courtesy of the U.S. Postal Service’s website. Who knows? These deets could take front stage at your next Oceans 5 Family Trivia Night! You’ll be well prepared.
Source: facts.usps.com
Stamps
The U.S. Postal Service holds the copyright of all its stamps issued after Dec. 31, 1978.
Copyright
More than 500 of those copyright registrations are filed to protect the stamps’ printed artwork.
No packaging required
This next one just might be my favorite postal fun fact of all: You can mail certain, wildly specific items through the U.S. Postal Service without any packaging. No bubble wrap. No box. Just an address written on the item itself and the postage to pay for it.
We’re talking:
- Coconuts: Yes. An actual coconut. Just write the delivery address and your return address right on the husk with a permanent marker, weigh it for postage, and that hairy little vacation friend ships as-is. No cardboard required.
- Potatoes: Say what now? It appears that people actually write their address on it, weigh it, slap on the postage, and off it goes. The Postal Service says of this: “Let someone know they are special. Send a tater.” … Aaaand I just cannot improve on that marketing angle. Plus, just knowing that some postal worker, somewhere, has gently placed a potato next to a birthday card means we’re all better equipped for life now.
- Bricks: Who are these people mailing all these random things?! (Answer: Me in a week, now that I know about it) But, yes, individual bricks can totally travel through the mail no problem. Just address it, weigh it, and add the postage. Boom. Done. Here’s some heavy-a** mail headed your way! For this one, the Postal Service quips: “Send that special someone a brick of affection.” Is it practical? Likely not. But is it unforgettable? Absolutely.
Produced by U.S. Postal Service Corporate Communications
Don’t mail babies, you guys
What can’t you mail? Babies. Well, humans in general. You’d think that’d be a no-brainer. But in 1913, the government had to make the no-people rule explicitly clear after an 8-month-old baby in Ohio was mailed (and, reportedly, delivered safely) by his parents to his grandmother, who lived a few miles away.
By hovercraft?!
Planes, hovercraft, trains, trucks, cars, boats, ferries, helicopters, subways, bicycles, mules and feet all help postal carriers deliver the country’s mail.
… Wait. What??
Why, yes indeedy, they did say mail-by-hovercraft. “Due to Alaska’s size, terrain, and limited road system, the USPS utilizes alternative and sometimes creative modes of transportation … even hovercraft, to deliver the mail,” according to a 2025 report by the Alaska Department of Public Transportation.
Here’s a video of it.
New stamps
The Postal Service issues approximately 35 new stamp designs each year. The stamp development team works with professional art directors to oversee the creation of stamp designs, according to the USPS stamp artwork page, and those directors coordinate with professional designers, artists, illustrators, and photographers to produce the stamp art. The department says USPS stamps are “one of the most visible forms of public art.”
New stamp stories
The new designs drop every month. And if you love a good sneak peek, the 2026 lineup is already teasing some. There’s even stories behind the stamps are posted at stampsforever.com.
It’s a whole thing
Apparently, they even have free public ceremonies for new stamps. Which means you can just … show up. Witness history. Clap enthusiastically for a Bald Eagle or Route 66 or whatever tiny masterpiece is having its big day. The locations for such festivities are posted online. Sadly, we just missed the “First Day of Issue Ceremony” in Seattle this month for the Bruce Lee stamp celebrating the actor and his martial art skills.
YOUR ideas (and your kids’)
A committee suggests new designs for the stamps each year. But they say the public is welcome to submit ideas or even their own artwork to be considered for future designs. Here’s a presentation about it. Idea: How about a bunch of us send in our kids’ drawings? That’d be super cool. Well, copies of them. My fridge really needs the 250 pieces of art currently stuck to its side panel.
Next time on “America’s Next Top Postage” …
More than 580,000 people recently voted on which retired stamp design to bring back for an encore run. The voting crowd response was so immense that the Postal Service said it nearly broke the website. The winning/most-voted design will be announced at the upcoming 2026 Boston World Stamp Expo.
New mail trucks coming
U.S. Postal Service news says new electric mail trucks are rolling out nationwide through 2028. Their new shape oddly reminds me of the Apatosaurus from Pixar’s 2015 animated film, “The Good Dinosaur.”
(Tell me you don’t see it. I’ll wait.)
Vocabulary test
Who here can pronounce “philatelic” out loud? It’s a fancy word for the study of stamps and all things postage. See? You learned something new already.
(Philatelic History Quiz, anyone?)
The National Postal Museum
The Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum in Washington D.C. offers a ton of online activities, games and quizzes for all ages. In its Just For Kids! section, you’ll also find instructions for the following paper crafts:
If you’ve got a piece of paper, an envelope and a stamp, you’re in business for this at-home activity. A guide shows where to write an address, where the return address goes, and just where to stick that tiny but mighty postage stamp.
Use common household supplies to build a paper mailbox out of construction paper, scissors, and your awesome imagination. Instant mail station in your kitchen.
Virtual Story Time
The National Postal Museum also hosts a Virtual Story Time from 11 to 11:45 a.m. Eastern Time on select Mondays. For us on Pacific time? That’s 8 to 8:45 a.m. PST. Yes. A bright-and-early postal party. Coffee for you. Story time for them. The 45-minute sessions are designed for ages 3 to 6 with a caregiver, but all ages are welcome, according to the Story Time page. They’re free, but you do need to register. Check the museum calendar for exact dates before setting your alarm.
Unless you have children under age 5. Then you’re just destined to never sleep again. Sorry.
See ya out there!
RELATED >>> History columnist Greg Spadoni wrote about post offices in his June 3, 2024 column titled: Where was the Gig Harbor Post Office in 1951?
Stamp Gallery Exhibit in Washington D.C. Image courtesy of Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum. Photo by Juan Carlos Briceño.
Tonya Strickland is a Gig Harbor mom-of-two and longtime journalist. Now in the travel and family niche, her blog, Two in Tow & On the Go, was named among the 10 Seattle-Area Instagram Accounts to Follow by ParentMap magazine. Tonya and her husband Bowen moved to Gig Harbor from California with their two kids, Clara (11) and Wyatt (9) in 2021. Find them on Facebook for all the kid-friendly places in and around town.