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One that applies to the US, many folks have TWO addresses. One where they live, and the other where they receive mail. Up here in Rural California, that is th

One that applies to the US, many folks have TWO addresses. One where they live, and the other where they receive mail. Up here in Rural California, that is the case, postal delivery is not a given to most of the residences. Sometimes the only delivery option is getting a post office box.

jtroyer 13y ago
Or said another way, the falsehood is "Addresses don't depend on delivery mechanisms." I'm also in California without home postal delivery. If you're going to deliver a package via USPS, you need to use my PO Box. If you're going to deliver via FedEx/UPS, you need my street address. If you don't tell me which way you're going to send it until the end of the order process, I have to go back and fix it if I guessed wrong.
- mikeash 13y ago
  When I was little, we had no address. We did live next to the local post office, so using a PO box for mail was nice and simple. For UPS, we had to give an address like, "the house next to the post office on the east side". It usually worked, but occasionally they'd get their directions mixed up and deliver to the house on the other side.
brooksmoses 13y ago
And sometimes an address that references a box number is both the "where they get mail" and the "where they live" address. I grew up at the address of "Route 1, Box 78, City, State ZIP". That was the rural mail delivery route, but it was the only actual address there was, unless you wanted "last house on county road 601 before you go over the top of the mountain" sorts of things. (The mailbox in question was on a post at the end of our driveway, and said "78" on it.) UPS and FedEx would deliver there, though sometimes we had to point out to a new UPS driver that no, we weren't box 79; they were two miles away on the next bit of the mail route. This also points out the changeability of addresses. Before I was old enough to remember, it was Route 1 Box 150A. And then ten or fifteen years ago, they went through and named all the streets and numbered all the houses, so it became "420 Streetname, City, State ZIP". The postman still knew that when my grandfather sent mail to Box 150A it should come to us, though. My current house is a duplex. The normal scheme would be something like "100 Streetname, unit A" or something, but somehow we ended up with "100A Streetname" instead. For added confusion, the actual doors aren't labeled, just the mailboxes.

jtroyer 13y ago

Or said another way, the falsehood is "Addresses don't depend on delivery mechanisms." I'm also in California without home postal delivery. If you're going to deliver a package via USPS, you need to use my PO Box. If you're going to deliver via FedEx/UPS, you need my street address. If you don't tell me which way you're going to send it until the end of the order process, I have to go back and fix it if I guessed wrong.

mikeash 13y ago
When I was little, we had no address. We did live next to the local post office, so using a PO box for mail was nice and simple. For UPS, we had to give an address like, "the house next to the post office on the east side". It usually worked, but occasionally they'd get their directions mixed up and deliver to the house on the other side.

brooksmoses 13y ago

And sometimes an address that references a box number is both the "where they get mail" and the "where they live" address. I grew up at the address of "Route 1, Box 78, City, State ZIP". That was the rural mail delivery route, but it was the only actual address there was, unless you wanted "last house on county road 601 before you go over the top of the mountain" sorts of things. (The mailbox in question was on a post at the end of our driveway, and said "78" on it.) UPS and FedEx would deliver there, though sometimes we had to point out to a new UPS driver that no, we weren't box 79; they were two miles away on the next bit of the mail route. This also points out the changeability of addresses. Before I was old enough to remember, it was Route 1 Box 150A. And then ten or fifteen years ago, they went through and named all the streets and numbered all the houses, so it became "420 Streetname, City, State ZIP". The postman still knew that when my grandfather sent mail to Box 150A it should come to us, though. My current house is a duplex. The normal scheme would be something like "100 Streetname, unit A" or something, but somehow we ended up with "100A Streetname" instead. For added confusion, the actual doors aren't labeled, just the mailboxes.