Vanishing breed: my rural post office project Part 1

On the closure list, Hoytville's office might be spared, but at the cost of being reduced to two hours of operation a day Photos Aaron W. Gonya 2012

        Anyone who follows the news is aware of the difficulties affecting the U.S. Postal service. Although it now seems that the imminent closure of thousands of rural post offices has been averted, the new strategy, which involves cutting the hours of operation of many offices to as little as two hours a day will also have far reaching consequences.
        To many people who live in larger towns and cities the Post Office is often little more than the carrier delivering the mail from their ubiquitous mail truck.
        To the citizens of rural areas and small towns the U.S. Post office takes on an entirely different character. There are no fleets of postal trucks, no familiar carriers walking the neighborhood with their bags of mail.  In fact in most small towns home delivery is not even offered. For the vast majority of Americans who live in a small town getting the mail involves a walk or short drive to the local Post office.

Grelton's post office is the corner of the
town's grain elevator

        If you live outside of a town, your mail might come in a any number of vehicles. From aged rusting postal jeeps to Subaru wagons to well worn Wranglers and Cherokees rural carriers supply their own vehicle to handle their routes. Far removed from the fleets of trucks and mini-vans used in urban areas.
        I set off, on what might be a race against time, to capture the rural postal service before it fades away.  Although the closings are now on hold, e-mail and package services such as Federal Express have eroded the business that has kept the U.S. Postal service in operation. My goal is to document the face of the rural post office, far removed from the monolithic buildings, vast fleets of vehicles and automated sorting centers of the more urban areas.
      Almost every small town post office is unique, the few who share an architectural style are time capsules direct from the very early 1960's. The rest range from repurposed store fronts, old banks and houses and all across the gamut to the basement of a Legion hall and a corner of a grain elevator office.
      In the city, or even a larger town everything is kept up to date, uniformly marked with the current USPS eagle logo. (In use since 1993).  However the farther you venture from the major population centers, the less the passage of time seems to have touched them. Step into a rural post office and you might find the older signage still displayed, a service information center (tack board) from the 1950's still kept up to date with the important events of the town, brass post boxes and no shortage of improvised, home made and hand painted signs. The local postal employees were generally residents of the villages they served and the post office became a  reflection of it's Postmaster (Or in the past, often it's Postmistress) and it's community.
     The economy has taken a harsh toll on far too many of these small towns, business close, and younger people move to cities where jobs are easier to find. Villages like Grelton, in Henry county once had four gas stations and several stores, now little remains but the grain elevator.  Grelton's post office might be a window into the future of the rural postal service. Grelton is a C.P.U., a Contract Postal Unit, Grelton elevator employee Eric Norden  handles the mail for the village in addition to running the grain elevator.  It's a system that seems to work very well for the town.

   The interior of the Grelton Post Office

     I've had a very positive reception so far in talking to the postal workers and visiting and photographing these offices. Uniformly they are proud of what they do. Many of them have 20-30 year careers with the USPS, and they all come across as very proud of their offices and the communities they serve.

Amtrak's history special visits Toledo

   Amtrak's historic display train spends the night at Toledo's
 Union station.  

   Whenever in the city for a few days I try and keep an eye out for interesting events going on. Amtrak's 40th anniversary display train was going to be in town for National Train day, which took place Saturday. National train day is an Amtrak sponsored event showcasing  rail travel in the U.S.
   Driving past the downtown Friday night and passing Union station I decided to take advantage of the chance to do some night photography of the train. The lights were on at the station and I had my tripod in the back seat (as always) so I grabbed the camera and headed down. I'll admit to a bit of trepidation after having been asked to leave the area on a couple of occasions in years past (In the aftermath of 9/11) Fortunately for me, a tripod toting photographer encumbered with gear must not seem like that much of a threat. I did however do the right thing and talk with some of the Amtrak personnel and let them know my intentions.    
   I spent close to two hours photographing the Amtrak train, with it's locomotives specially painted to reflect Amtrak's 40th anniversary (Last year Amtrak marked it's 40th year). My only company were a pair of rail enthusiasts and a few passengers waiting to board a later train.  As everyone should near railroad tracks, I crossed the tracks only in the marked areas and maintained a high state of awareness. Anytime you are near a railroad track you should expect a train.

Amtrak Locomotive #822 represents the railroads

 current high tech  equipment. 

  Toledo's Union station was built in 1948 as the last major Union station constructed in the U.S. Before it's construction the multiple railroads serving Toledo each maintained their own buildings.
    I went back to the station Saturday afternoon to help staff  our historical societies table at the event, but regrettably didn't get the chance to tour the train, maybe next year.

  Amtrak locomotive #406 represents
  the companies past.

My final blog post on PHO245, but my blog will continue on.

   As the semester quickly winds down, and we all rush to tie up loose ends and frantically turn in assignments that probably should have been completed weeks ago. I'm taking a few minutes to convert my blog from a class project in PHO245/Intro to Photojournalism into my general photography blog.  I have already changed the name, and used it as part of an assignment for the careers course I took this semester. Having three months of content on my blog already has to count for something!
    If anyone continues to follow this blog, rest assured the tone will not change all that much. Most of the personal projects I have lined up don't stray that far from the photojournalistic style that I enjoy, and that Lori and Dave reinforced so well over the past several months.
 PHO245 was probably the most interesting, enjoyable and definitely one of the most difficult "shooting" classes I have ever taken.
   Lori, our instructor asked us to make any suggestions on how the experience could be improved for the next semesters class.  Quite honestly the only ones I could think of were also brought up by my classmates, so all I can really do is echo them here.
   Shooting should start earlier, much earlier.  Personally I think a group field trip/shooting assignment should be worked into the first month. It would get everyone more acclimated to being around the general public with their camera, and editing the take in class would be a good reinforcement of what we look for with human interest and composition.  I think it would be a good jump start to getting past the initial apprehension that most of us felt about shooting in public.
    The camera ops-slide show should be back in, but due as a mid-term project. I was inundated with other class work near the end and would have had to hack it together at the last second, had Lori not removed it from the requirements. Personally I was thrilled about that, but I also think it's important and needs to be reinforced at every opportunity
    Like several other people have mentioned, I think the due dates for the class, and personal projects should be staggered by a week or two. For me, everything in all my classes coming due at the last second put a major rush, and a lot of pressure on me. It's done, and it was probably a good lesson in handling stress, but I feel that my work could have been better had I been able to stagger, (which I could have on my own, of course) the assignments.
    I  can't think of anything else, except to thank Lori, Dave, Sydney,Shalisha,Maria,Paul and Christian for one of the best class experiences that I have ever had.