YETMO

"Honey, Did You See This Month's Postage Bill?"

How well I remember how my parents and grandparents felt about long distance telephone calls. They were too expensive, wasteful, and extravagant. Whenever someone was placing a call they'd utter in hushed tones, "Hurry up, it's long distance. It's costing a fortune." It didn't seem to matter whether you were making or receiving the call. They'd react the same way. Long distance calling was a big deal -- a luxury. If you had to say something, do it quickly. Forget the chit-chat. If you had much to discuss, write. Postage was a lot cheaper.

Times certainly have changed, at least as far as the younger generation is concerned -- and they may be on to something. They make long distance telephone calls with impunity. I know. I have two teenage children. But if you look at the cost of a one-minute weekend call from, say, DC to Los Angeles, telephoning may be more economical than writing -- and certainly a lot faster. And today, whether we like it or not, we're into speed.

After I heard about the latest postal rate increase (effective 1/1/95), I did some research. It seemed that the last thing you'd want to do now is spend time and money to craft letters and post them to faraway acquaintances. Why not just pick up the phone and get your business done right away? Besides, letters don't talk back like folks on the other end of a telephone line.

Believe it or not, a half-ounce letter cost 3 cents to mail back in 1863. It actually went down to 2 cents in 1883, Two years later, though, it was back up to 3 cents, but that paid for twice as much -- a one ounce letter. First class postal has been based on that standard one measly ounce ever since.

Tracking postal increases is fun, if you get off on trivial matters, as I obviously must. It took 83 years before that 3-cent stamp doubled in 1968. By 1971, it increased another 33% (8 cents) upon establishment of the United States Postal Service (USPS). In just under a quarter of a century, postage increased four-fold to its current 32 cent mark.

In very rough figures, postage costs doubled in about one century, but quadrupled in the past 24 years. For you mathematicians, that's a rate of increase 16 times faster than it was during the period from the end of the Civil War through the turbulent 1960's. If nothing else, it validates what we all know: change is occurring at a staggering rate.

USPS deserves a break. In fairness, I must point out that Congress set postal rates for the "Post Office Department" before the USPS was created and tasked with setting prices sufficient to finance its operations. Until then, Congress merely found money from some place or other in the Treasury and covered whatever operating deficits existed. It was a free ride and was great while it lasted.

Back to the phones. Today, it costs about 15 cents a minute to make a weekend call from the comfort of your home to someone on the West Coast. That's a lot less than it was 10, 20, or 30 years ago. I love to see costs go down. That's the blessing of technology. We already talked about the curse -- accelerating change occurring at an ever-accelerating pace.

Some would say that by becoming a society of telephone chatterboxes we risk losing the art of writing. We hear and read about how our school children can not read or write as effectively as the preceding generation. We're headed for disaster, we're told.

Fear not! Now that phone costs are so low, at least compared to other alternatives, telecommuting is becoming increasingly popular -- and economical. And to be effective in the Information Age of today and tomorrow, good written communication is essential. Thus, we are living through a macro societal phenomenon. Just when it looks like our kids don't have to worry anymore about proper grammar, subjects, verbs, tenses, and articles, technology brings us around full circle and requires good written communications.

As people send and receive more computer messages, the more verbal skills will be used, practiced, refined and relied upon. We're all destined to be Shakespeares, Micheners, Raspberrys and Wordworths all rolled into one.

The more things change the more they stay the same. In Colonial times, writing was the preferred mode of communication. Before long, we will have progressed so far and so fast that writing will again be our preferred choice.