Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Z is for Zone and Zip Codes



 Today is the final letter of the current  round of ABC WEDNESDAY.  The word Zone came to mind  when Elvis sings about "no such zone".

Elvis is my favorite singer of all time, he could sing the whole white pages with every ZIP CODE and it would be wonderful.



.

ZIP is an acronym for ZONE IMPROVEMENT PLAN.

Robert Moon is the postal worker in 1944 who is credited with inventing the ZIP code.  He submitted a proposal but it wasn't  adopted until July 1960, at the time it was non-mandatory.

This is Mr. Zip, he was a advertizing character to encourage people to use Zip Codes to speed up the mail.

Zip is also a term meaning the mail "zipping along".

The Zip Code became mandatory in 1963, at the same time the 2 digit state abbreviation was initiated.

In 1983 the Zip + 4 digits was created for a delivery sector and in 1991- 2 more digits added for further location determinations.

Some interesting info:

There are 42,000 zip codes in the U.S.
The White House has it's own secret zip for the first family to receive private mail.
Arlington, Virginia's zip is 22222
90210 is the most well known Zip because of Beverly Hills 90210 and Dr. 90210
A fictitious zip code of 90909 was assigned for the Veronica Mars TV Series.

I really just touched the surface about all of the history and details concerning the ZIP CODES, there is so much to read in Wikipedia on how the states were assigned the numbers and lots of interesting facts.

Linking with ABC WEDNESDAY



Ann

8 comments:

Roger Owen Green said...

GE in Schenectady, NY is 12345.
I THINK I wrote on this topic, a round or two ago.

RachelD said...

Ann,

It was so nice to have you drop in at LAWN TEA---it's below ZERO for days here, but the welcome is always WARM.

rachel

The Quintessential Magpie said...

Love it! I haven't heard this in ages. The King still has it in spades!

xo

Sheila

Theresa said...

Well that was interesting and something I didn't know:) Enjoy your day dear friend, I hope you are zipping along in your neck of the woods! HUGS!

Leslie: said...

Fascinating history about the zip code's instigation. In Canada, we have postal codes - same thing but different. lol

leslie
abcw team

Obsessivemom said...

That was interesting. Here in India we have pin codes.. Postal index number.. Guess it's the same thing.

Diane said...

I think I will be singing Elvis in my head the rest of day now....but that is a good thing, I love his music! Great post. Diane

Annesphamily said...

What fun! I always use zip codes and now the addition of the 4 digit code after that! Goodness times have changed.

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