The United States Postal Service has come down on the side of nostalgia and small communities. After testing patrons of six local post offices to see how much they care (through meetings to determine if they really wanted the offices to stay open), the service decided to keep all six, albeit with reduced hours.

Thus are preserved six neighborhoods—Wicomico, Foster, Grimstead, Gwynn, Moon and Hudgins. At four of these, the post office is just about the only remaining public space to keep the community strong. Across our readership, country crossroad businesses have disappeared almost as fast as big chain stores have opened. In days long gone, post offices came after the business crossroads were established. Now little remains but the postal center.

Also significant in the decision is that jobs are preserved; jobs with reduced hours, but incomes that continue for people that need the work, and for a nation that needs the revenue from their income taxes. At the local scale, it’s a small thing; if the pattern continues across the nation of preserving these jobs, it will make a positive difference to the ongoing economic recovery.