Cy Serna did not like delivering mail to my mom’s house when I was growing up.

This was back in 1966.

Mail carriers in Lincoln were just transitioning from the shoulder bags to three-wheel push cart style contraptions they used on their door-to-door rounds.

My oldest brother, attending Sierra College on his way to a double-degree in architecture and engineering at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, subscribed to Architectural Digest and a half dozen other professional design periodicals that were a challenge to push through the mail slot on the front door.

My grandmother, who was living with us at the time, subscribed to six different magazines and a monthly book club or two.

My mom also subscribed to several magazines plus got catalogues from the likes of JC Penney, Montgomery Wards, and Sears back in their heyday when they were distributed quarterly.

It was also when the big department store chains’ main Christmas catalogue rivaled the Sacramento telephone book that at the time was pushing 2 inches in thickness.

As for me, I was an eighth grader who splurged some of the money I earned working in the summer to subscribe to three weekly news magazines; Newsweek, Time, and US News & World Report.

Mr. Serna delivered all that in addition to bills, personnel correspondence known as written letters, greeting cards around the holidays, postcards people used to send short notes basically on the back of a photo — think Instagram — and old-fashioned junk mail.

And he did so by, thanks to our home having a full basement, walking up the six steps to our front door and cramming it thru the mail slot in the door.

Little wonder why one day as he passed my mom on sidewalk while making his appointed rounds he said, in an annoyed voice, “Verna, why in the hell don’t you buy your magazines at the grocery store like everyone else?”

I seriously doubt he’d have the same sentiments today if he was still working as a mailman given how mail volume is shrinking, although he’d easily be pushing 120 years of age if he were still alive.

(As for the mailman reference, it’s not being non-woke or politically incorrect, as that’s what postal carriers were called almost universally back in the un-enlightened age when people often assigned a gender — think cowboy and cowgirl — when referencing someone in an occupation or a position such as board chairman.)

Clearly 1966 isn’t visible in the rearview of memories of most people alive.

And even fewer have bought rolls of 100 first-class stamps that took just a couple of months to deplete or were around in the days where you actually had to lick stamps to place them on an envelope.

Now let’s look at today’s United States Postal Service according to the federal General Accountability Office:

*Last Friday, it reported losing $2 billion in the second quarter.

*It is on pace to run out of cash in early 2027.

*The Postal Service has about maxed out the $15 billion they are authorized by Congressional statute to borrow from the US Treasury.

*They are either not making or only partially making required annual funding payments toward its liabilities for retiree health and pension benefits.

*Mail volume has declined 49 percent from its peak of 231.1 million pieces in 2006 to 108.78 million pieces in 2025.

*Meanwhile, delivery points are up 16 percent from 146.2 million in 2006 to 170.5 million in 2025.

*71 percent of the system’s delivery routes are financially underwater.

*On-time first class mail performance has declined from 91 percent in 2022 to 86 percent in 2025. That occurred despite the decision in 2022 to lower delivery standards for certain first class mail from a 1-to-3- day delivery window to a 1-to-5-day window.

*It has lost money in every fiscal year except for one since 2007.

*During that time, accumulated Postal Service losses are at $118 billion.

Even in the fantasy world the Congress operates in, it is clear shackles such as delivery service mandates and not closing post offices while mandating the Postal Service be self-sufficient is akin to attaching concrete ankle weights to someone and then tossing them into them open and telling them to swim.

The Postal Service needs to be allowed to slash home delivery from six days a week to two or three. And they should be allowed to shutter post offices in favor of kiosk-style operations.

People and businesses can adjust to a lower delivery frequency better than the Postal Service going belly-up.

And making the Postal Service hostage to mail-in elections should be a no-starter.

States can adjust. Most Californians, as an example, already have their mail in ballots with 18 days to go until Election Day.