Hello and welcome back to the Curious Kid podcast. One of our most popular episodes yet was

Episode 12, Curious about Garbage. In that episode, we learned what happens to your garbage after you

bring it to the curb for pickup. So this week we're going to do something similar. This week,

we're getting curious about mail. We are going to learn what happens after you put a letter in the mailbox.

What's our question of the week this week? Is it harmful to look postage stamps? These days,

many stamps are stickers, but if you are a mommy or daddy, you've probably licked a postage stamp or two before.

Let's start with some United States mail history.

The Postal Service has been around since 1775.

That's right. In July of 1775, at the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,

it was determined that there should be a postmaster general who was to get paid $1,000 annually

and should be in charge of creating posts for mail service between Falmouth and New England

all the way south to Savannah, Georgia.

The first postmaster general was Benjamin Franklin.

And there have been many other famous postmaster generals,

including former presidents Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman.

Mail was originally delivered by foot or horse. That's why in 1850, it would take

four to six weeks to send a letter from New York to San Francisco. Later, male traveled by train or steamboat.

That's why in 1900, it would take less than a week to deliver

that same letter. Today, mail travels by plane or truck. Mail is really efficient, but it seems like

people are using it less and less. I remember sending letters by mail and paying bills by mail,

but email and the internet have replaced the need for standard mail. I realized that the Postal

Service was in trouble when I got an Evite to a wedding a few years ago. I figured that wedding

...