Last week, we were brave enough to ask: Zip Codes – What Are They?
In the asking, we discovered zip codes were created in 1963, which was much later than we had hoped. That’s pretty recent. That’s later than Alaska and Hawaii becoming states. In the asking, we also promised to figure out what they did before zip codes. We said we’d get back to you on Tuesday. It’s Tuesday.
Turns out, the answer to what happened before zip codes is boring. They just figured out where the letter was supposed to go based on the city and the state, and if it was a large city, they knew well enough where each street was that they got things to their destinations. I guess maybe that isn’t boring, now that I think of it. That’s a lot of institutional knowledge. Do you think mail sorters moonlit as taxi drivers? Would have been a useful crossover.
What we also learned, in this asking, is that ZIP evidently stands for something, and that something is Zone Improvement Plan. This is why a lot of people capitalize ZIP. It’s an acronym.
I’m going to put my hand up here and admit something: I never wondered where the word zip came from, in this instance. It never crossed my mind. That probably would’ve been a better original question. “Why not Button Codes?” “Why not Velcro Codes?” (Velcrodes.) Instead, I just asked what Zip Codes were as though I didn’t know. Really, I wanted to talk about what the numbers mean. I didn’t even find anything interesting there! Except the part about the IRS hiding on Long Island. That’s good to know. Makes me trust Billy Joel a whole lot less. But the numbers mean nothing!
There, friends, is our lesson for today. ZIP stands for Zone Improvement Plan. What a day.
