City Daily Photo Theme Day for May 2011 - Mailbox

This is the post office (Pos Malaysia) in the little town I grew up in. It is in the outskirts of Perak state, Malaysia. The red mailbox on the left is for general mail while the yellow one is for express mail. The twin buildings on the right behind the pos office are the W.C. or lavatories (for staff and not for the public).

The building used to be a converted kampong styled house with stilts. The office is at the front portion of the building while the back portion of the building is used as the living quarters for the postmaster.

During those days, there was only one postman and he delivered letters by bicycle, rain or shine. The bicycle was red in colour and the letters or documents were put inside a bag which he carried around with him. We loved to hear the sound of his bell… Ring! Ring! Ring! It meant that we have letters and news from afar. Later, his bicycle was upgraded to a motorbike. Mr Postman also acted as the translator or letter reader for the illiterate villagers and town people here. Some of them did not have valid addresses (e.g. squatters or those who stayed close to the ulu-ulu jungle) but he knew where to find them to deliver the letters, aerograms, parcels and packages. We could also also hand over to him our letters to be posted. Those days many of us do not have a telephone line. Sometimes, he brought urgent news which may be good or bad in the form of a ‘telegram’. Everybody in town knew him, our one and only Mr. Postman. … Oh yes, wait a minute Mister Postman, wait Mister Postman. Please Mister Postman, look and see, Oh yeah, If there's a letter in your bag for me...

When I was little, I used to come here with mum and sister to deposit our Chinese New Year ang pow money, coin savings or savings from pocket money from grandpa, grandma, mum and dad. I really looked forward to coming here. At other times, I would also come here to buy stamps, first-day covers or aerograms to post to our pen-pals from overseas. Sometimes mum would accompany our neighbour, Aunty YT here to help her deposit her hard earned savings. Aunty YT was illiterate and made a living holding a few jobs e.g. ‘dulang-washing’ for tin ore, tapping rubber trees for latex, growing vegetables, rearing chickens and ducks or doing odd jobs like washing clothes or sweeping house compounds. She used to hide her savings under the pillow or in urns under her bed. Quite often all the money would get stolen. One day, mum taught her how to save money by opening an account at the post office. She was very happy when she found that she could earn interest from the money saved and see her money grow.

Have you ever saved money at the post office?
Do you still remember your post office savings book?


“City Daily Photo Theme Day for May 2011 - Mailbox”, a copyrighted post, was written for Klang, Malaysia Daily Photo blog by Autumn Belle @ http://mymalaysiadailyphoto.blogspot.com/ on May 1st, 2011.

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