Were ZIP-codes controversial when they were introduced in 1963?

[JVS]

There must have been some crazy conspiracy theory about them.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

1. Just the fluoridated ones.

[jobycom]

2. If a conspiracy develops and GD isn't around to discuss it

does it really make a sound?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. What happens in 1963...

STAYS in 1963...

:P























Nope, no controversy that I remember...

[frogmarch]

4. A friend of mine

decided to test the ZIP system, so when she went on a trip to Washington state, she sent me a postcard to my then-home in Edgemont, South Dakota. She addressed it to me at my street address, but instead of Edgemont, SD, she wrote "Armpit 57735." I received it.

[kentauros]

5. That reminds me of when Zip+4 came out

and I read a letter to the editor where the person had addressed a postcard with nothing but the Zip+4. It got to its destination and without delay :D

[Fire Walk With Me]

6. Millions of enraged citizens wrote their congressmen about it.

[madinmaryland]

7. ZOMG!! Zip-codes killed JFK!!1!!

:rofl:

[texanwitch]

8. I have no idea, at the time I was 10 years old.

Has it been that long since zip codes became part of the mail sysstem.

[rug]

9. Why do you think he was running?

[Archae]

10. There was one guy.

A Senator Hugh Scott.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Scott

He said zip codes were needed since "Niggers can't read."

[hippywife]

13. Oh good grief!

I will never understand the thought processes of people like this. Never, never, never.

[Archae]

17. Hugh Scott was a product of his times.

He was a philanderer, openly chased skirts, corrupt as hell, the works.

[hippywife]

18. I totally don't buy into the idea

that someone is "a product of their times" where bigotry and philandering are concerned. I don't think there has ever been any era that was exempt from these problems, ya know? ;)

[Archae]

19. Back then the news media covered for most of those guys.

Look how JFK and his philandering was not covered.

And in some states those who were even marginally pro-civil rights got shafted, even murdered.

[Gormy Cuss]

11. I remember the adults bitching about them being needlessly complex.

The old system in urbanized areas was simpler.

Old system:"Smithtown, 5, Ma."
New system: "Smithtown, MA 02103"

Local mail delivery time didn't improve with ZIPs, but long distance delivery did.


eta: I remember lots more complaints about the standardized state abbreviations, come to think of it.

:D

[hippywife]

14. LOL.

Those abbreviations still throw some people to this day. :rofl:

[bikebloke]

12. Black Biplanes

People were afraid zip codes would be used by black biplanes to hover over their homes...And since they don't hover too well, they'd crash on the roofs.

By the time bar codes came around black helicopters had been invented.

:tinfoilhat:

[hippywife]

15. Before my husband and I married

I was living in Ohio and he here in OK. There was no address here, just a rural route and box number. I sent him mail addressed with his name, the rural route and box number, the town and state but I put EIEIO as the zip. He got it just fine. That was over 13 years ago.

We got an actual street address about five years ago as part of a 911 project. Now if the mail comes addressed with the old rural route and box number, they send it back instead of delivering it here. :eyes:

:rofl:

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

16. Other stuff in that era

Vietnam, Cuban Missile Crisis, Assassination of JFK, zip codes.

It was pretty easy to slip it past us. Plus, I think there was less OUTRAGE! in those years. We're on a shorter fuse now.

Some cities had postal zones anyway. If you added the zone to the address, it was supposed to speed up the post. Dunno if it had any impact.

:hi:

[applegrove]

20. Apparently for marketing purposed each major zip code in the USA has a code such as "pickup trucks &

shotguns" to describe the people who live there for marketing reasons.

[femmocrat]

21. Not as controversial as the seven-digit telephone number!

OMG! And now we have to memorize ten digits! Egad!

[valerief]

22. I had a crush on Mr. ZIP.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._ZIP

[gmoney]

23. Once upon a time, you could just write "City" below the address

and I guess that was enough for the local post office to know it was an address within the city it was mailed from. Shows up in old movies and TV shows now and then.