This is a critical time in the run up to Christmas for canny folk around here. Christmas (which is taken more seriously than in many other parts of Scotland where Hogmanay is the big Festive Event) is on a Sunday and the moment is nearly upon us when a first class stamp will be necessary to get your card to whomsoever in time. This is a big moment given the financial penalty of missing 'last posting' and having to fork out lots of extra ps for the higher rate. In Hutton the decision is made easier by having a post office which opens only twice a week One can then calculate that next Monday there is a sporting chance that for 21p Auntie Meg's card will make it for the big day-but leave it to Thursday with only two days left before the world closes down-no way Jose. And even with the 30p variety its going to be a close call. In between if you are out of stamps it means a trek into Berwick, a visit to a heaving urban office with queuing down the pavement and all that associated aggro of joining the last minute rush with all those other foolish virgins( in old King James Biblical speak)
I remember having this debate with a Huttonian pensioner in those golden days when we had the local post office on our kitchen table. She had asked for a 2nd class stamp for a card on the 22nd of December. I said that in my professional opinion as PO owner and Part time post master that a First Class stamp might just give her a chance of getting the card there in time. ' A First Class stamp? To get my card there by Christmas? ' She said-'Ah-nae bother-next year will do' Indeed. And I am sure it will do equally well this season.
When I think of it I can't recall actually selling a first class stamp when I was managing the table-except, once, to the wife. Happy Days.
