When first class mail was $0.06 and post cards cost $0.02 we had mail service to the house twice per day through the week and on Saturday mornings.
USPS workers were clean, well-groomed, dressed in decent uniforms, always courteous and helpful. Many times I had no stamps in the house, but the postman would take my pennies, nickels, dimes, and letters to be mailed and make sure they went out promptly.
Rural mail service was provided by local folks working on contracted routes. If the postmaster received too many complaints from a route there would be another contractor assigned pretty quickly.
Every town had a post office, and larger communities had post offices in every neighborhood. The premises were always neat and clean. The folks working there were always friendly and helpful.
Drop boxes on city street corners, residential areas, and in the lobbies of office buildings. Contents were picked up twice per day at the times posted on the box.
Nobody jacked around with the US Postal Service. Two incidents stick out in my memory from the 1970s:
1. Had a smash-and-grab burglar working the downtown retail area. Break a window, grab what he could reach, put it in a pre-addressed envelope, drop it in a drop box. We spent at least 12 hours dealing with the postmaster, US Postal Inspector, and a federal judge in order to secure that site and eventually recover the evidence. The prevailing attitude was basically HELL NO! THAT'S THE US MAIL, YOU CAN'T TOUCH IT.
2. Residential letter carrier in his little delivery vehicle slammed into a couple of parked cars. Strong odor of alcoholic beverage, watery red eyes, slurred speech, staggering gait. Probably ten pounds of paperwork to satisfy the Postmaster and Postal Inspector that the contents of that vehicle had not been compromised in any way, shape, or form.
Things are just a little bit different now.
