Charleston Historical Facts!

Over the past couple of weeks since I started this blog I have expressed my opinion on what was customer service. At the end of my blog for this week I promise I will post historical facts about Charleston that you may or may not know.

But I was pleased to find out not far from our beautiful city customer service as our grandparents and great grandparents knew it, is still alive and well.

A friend of mine that works for the United States Postal Service informed me that as a mail carrier she still sells stamps during her rounds delivering mail. I was speechless, and for those of you that know me, I always have something to say! She told me not only does she sell stamps, she gets letters with pennies taped to them or quarters left in the mail box to purchase stamps. Oh, and if you leave a note with money for a money order, she will pick it up and deliver the USPS Money Order the following day to your mail box or a book of stamps.

I told her I was impressed that this kind of customer service was still alive and well somewhere still in America. She told me that was everywhere. I disagreed and warned her she would be part of my blog this week.

So I grabbed my “www” surf board and hit the internet, searching the phrase “taping pennies to an envelope”, “buying stamps from a mail carrier” and “buying money orders from a mail carrier”.   

On the first try, I hit several sites starting that the same question was asked as far back as 2006. The answer was the same for all of them, NO! Even one newspaper article from 2006 on how the newspaper itself received a letter with a .37-cent stamp and two pennies taped next to the stamp right after a rate increase to 39-cents took effect. A postal employee was questioned and said “Under no circumstance is currency attached to a letter a legitimate substitute for stamps.” She then proceeds to add in the article “The only thing I can think of is the idiot who ran it through” made an exception.

Idiot? Really she referred to someone going above and beyond for the customer an idiot. Well, it seems Rural route carriers still offer this service. So my friend was correct as it seems she must deliver in what would be considered a rural route. At least by my research, it would be a rural route. I remember hearing stories about this being normal years ago.

I applaud the individual who processed the letter that was referred to in the newspaper article and think we need more upstanding people that go above and beyond for the customer. I have to question the postal employee the newspaper reporter spoke with, never mind what you think of the person that processed the letter, the 2 cents should have been collected and entered as income just as any other stamp purchase have been recorded. Since she worked for the branch office that delivered the letter in the end, why didn’t she collect the 2-cents? Just my “two-cents”.

Mark your calendars!! Did you know that in 1992 the U.S. Congress proclaimed the first full week of October to be “Customer Service Week”?It's coming up soon!!

Now as promised Some Charleston Historical Facts:

“Charles Town” is founded as the capital city of Carolina across the Ashley River from the current site in April of 1670

Charles Town is moved to the current site with a population estimated to be 1200 making it the 5^th largest city in North America in 1690

City Assembly establishes a tax supported free library, most likely the first public library in America on November 16, 1700

1710, Power Magazine at 79 Cumberland St. is built.

1712 The territory of Carolina is divided into North and South.

1718 Blackbeard the Pirate sails into Charles Town Harbor with 4 ships.

1728 Regular passenger and shipping services begin between Charles Town and New York.

January 8^th 1732 The South Carolina Gazette publishes its first edition

First opera performed February 18, 1735

America’s first building constructed solely to be used as a theater was the Dock Street Theater, February 12, 1736.

First fire insurance company February 3, 1736

Oldest municipal Chamber of Commerce in continuous operations December 9, 1773

First major naval battle of the Revolutionary War June 28, 1776

“Charles Town” was officially renamed Charleston at the end of the American Revolution in 1783

First golf course September 29, 1786 along with the first game of golf played in the United States.

First fireproof building 1823 (bet the fire insurance company was behind this building)

1828-29 A young Army recruit Edgar Allen Poe is stationed at Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island. His first published story “The Gold Bug” is about Sullivan’s Island and the pirate lore.

First municipal college 1836

1843 The Citadel opens for the first class of Cadets

First patent for a mechanical refrigerator May 6, 1851

First shot fired in the Civil War January 9, 1861

First submarine to sink a ship in battle February 17, 1864

First Memorial Day May 1, 1865

1886 an earthquake rocks the Lowcountry with an estimated 7.5 earthquake. 83 people lost their lives and $6 million in damage.

1900 Charleston’s population has grown to an estimated 55,807.

1925 A new dance craze begins in the local pubs and dancehalls and spreads across the country called “The Charleston”

1934 George Gershwin begins to research and write Porgy and Bess, the first American Opera.

1957 Italian composer Gian Carlo Menotti comes to Charleston to start the American site of Menotti’s Festival of Two Worlds, later know as Spoleto Festival.

1963 Charleston’s Rivers High School becomes the first racially integrated high school in South Carolina.

1977 the first Spoleto Festival USA is held and Charleston is designated the permanent home for the festival.

1989 Hurricane Hugo slams Charleston with losses estimated at $2.8 billion dollars

1995 Clive Cussler and his team discover the Confederate Submarine H.L. Hunley

Thanks to the Charleston Public Library for the historical facts. dispite what my kids think, I was not around to document all of these first hand.......