CITY VOICES
HARVEY
No postage required — or allowed JANICE HARVEY
America. Using that essential service to erry Christmas! I’m saying suppress votes — during a pandemic — is a maneuver both vile and it now because if Donald corrupt. It doesn’t take a scholar to Trump has his way, the see that Trump’s usual bag of tricks Christmas cards I mail has a hole in it this time around, won’t arrive until Easter. If ever. and he needed to explore another I must say, of all the disastrous route to continue as president. His messes I envisioned for America campaign has no message, offers no when the electoral college stuck us plans for solving the myriad crises with a bankrupt game show host, we face. “It’s gonna be great!” isn’t I did not have “Destroy the United States Postal Service” on my Trump cutting it with thinking Americans. To-Do List. How badly does this guy His familiar penchant for namecalling has grown stale this time want to stay in the White House? around. He can’t seem to gain any What awaits him as an ordinary traction with his efforts to demean citizen to go this far to suppress Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. votes? Trump hired a megadonor Nothing seems to be sticking; hence with no experience in the Post Office — Louis “DePalma” DeJoy — to voter suppression most blatant! remove sorting machines and drop It’s the only trick left in the bag, boxes. If Trump walked around car- but “Thou Shalt Not Mess with the rying a sign that read “I’M TRYING USPS” should be the 11th Commandment. TO STEAL THE ELECTION” he By the weekend, public outcry couldn’t be more obvious. Yesterday, I went for a walk with over the USPS travesty was beginning to rise. Speaker Nancy Pelosi my grandkids. The mail carrier we met along the way was so cheerful, announced that members of the he broke my heart. He commented House will cut short their summer recess and vote to block any policy on the cooler weather and added changes DeJoy is cooking up with that he parked his truck nearby, Trump. DeJoy stated that he’s not choosing to walk and enjoy the removing any more sorting marefreshing temp change. After chines, though he didn’t say he was we passed, I turned and shouted: returning them, either. Proposed “We’re with the Post Office all legislation would freeze current the way, my friend!” The look of gratitude on his sunburnt face was services until either the pandemic is over, or Jan. 1, 2021. Something unmistakable. He thanked me. tells me January will roll around “That means a lot,” he said. before coronavirus packs its bags. Seeing this man walk from I’ve decided that I’m not mailhouse to house made me recall ing my vote. I will wear a mask, Joe Servideo, the mail carrier who gloves — hell, I’ll don a Hazmat for 40 years walked the Burncoat area route that included Uncatena suit to vote in person if I have to. I Avenue where I lived. A kinder, fun- want to experience the satisfaction nier and more thoughtful employee of leaping over Trump’s barriers never wore the uniform. Before the to democracy even if it means standing for hours in famously days of online deposits, Joe would crappy New England weather. It’s make sure my paycheck from almost always cold and wet on Worcester Magazine got to me before the credit union closed. Seri- Election Day. I saw Joe Servideo ously? Who does that? Who leaves deliver mail in the worst weather a note in your mailbox, along with imaginable and never whine about it — through snow, rain, heat and the keys you thought you lost? People like Joe, who took their jobs over poorly shoveled sidewalks, seriously, and understood how the likely making his rounds at dusk Postal Service, for all its flaws, was in winter. The way I see it, I owe it to Joe to do my duty and brave the the backbone, the lifeblood and elements, even if it takes me into every other cliche that suggests just how essential that service is to the gloom of night.
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WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM
A U G U S T 20 - 26, 2020
M
FIRST PERSON
The Library of Disposable Art: The Penny
DAVID MACPHERSON
I
have a penny collection. I don’t know where it is. It’s kind of small. It was one of those little portfolios that had indentations so you can put the coins in. The idea to this wee grouping was that I would have one penny from each year. I was going to have a century of pennies. Each penny has the year it was minted. The other part of the collection was that all the pennies were to be found in everyday transactions. I was not to purchase from a coin dealer. I just had to get them from the change I was given, from the “leave a penny — take a penny” dishes by the cash register, on the ground, in the change jar in the kitchen. All the pennies were to be found in the wild. I think this little project came about when I emptied my pockets filled with, keys, coins, wadded tissues and whatever detritus nestled in there (my wife has said that I am the boy with the frog in his pocket) and discovered a few old pennies.
It was amazing to see how the humble penny had changed, from heavy dark metal of the 1940s to the shiny pliable penny of 2002. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
One was from the ’70s. Another was 1969. Then I noticed a penny from 1946. I was shocked. There was a lot of hard living right there resting in my palm. So, for a few years, I was determined to get a penny from every year. I think the earliest penny I got was from the 1920s.
It was amazing to see how the humble penny had changed, from heavy dark metal of the 1940s to the shiny pliable penny of 2002. The older ones seemed more valuable. Though, point of fact, they still were just a cent. I never finished it. Hell, I don’t C O N T I N U E D O N N E XT PA G E
