Seven Little Postmen (A Little Golden Book)

**Lisa Bueno** (0:00)
Okay, our friends, so today, we're reading a classic Little Golden Book. It's reaching back in time to a time when things were done a little bit differently than they are now. Like right now, if you want to send a message to your grandma, what would you do? Would you call her on the phone and say, hey grandma, here's what I have to say?
Would you borrow mom and dad's phone and send her a text message? Yeah. Would you send her an email? Or call her on, yeah, maybe you've got some Skype or FaceTime or some way to connect with her, or maybe you live in the same town and you just go over to her house. Well, if you live far away, there's lots of different ways to communicate. But when this book was written in 1952, there was really only one sure fire way to get a long message to someone if you couldn't call them.
Back then, you couldn't really call someone who didn't live in the same town with you because otherwise that would be considered a long distance phone call. Okay?
Well, it was very expensive to call long distance.
And so people would send letters. They would write what they needed to write in a letter and send the letter, and it was a whole thing. Now, yes, you can still send letters today, and it's very exciting if you have a pen pal. But let's talk about how the letter gets there and about what it needs, shall we? Today's story is called Seven Little Postmen. This story was written by Margaret Wise Brown, and you know her, she wrote Good Night Moon, right? And Edith Thatcher Heard. And the pictures are by Tibor Gurgley, and we love, love his art. So my friends buckle up. Today's story is read by Mommy and...

**SPEAKER_2** (2:08)
The Super Mega Bowcoblin Smasher.

**Lisa Bueno** (2:11)
The Super Mega Bowcoblin Smasher? Amazing.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:19)
I smash bowcoblin fortresses.

**Lisa Bueno** (2:21)
You do? Well, I'm so glad that you do that, I think.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:25)
I knew the bowcoblins were alive when I smashed the fortresses.

**Lisa Bueno** (2:27)
You smashed it? Okay, well...

**SPEAKER_2** (2:28)
It's fun to smash the fortresses.

**Lisa Bueno** (2:30)
I see that. I can see how that would be fun to smash. Especially bad guys. You don't want them walking around having fortresses. What would you like to hear about letters? Yeah, it's gonna be quite the adventure too, I promise. Check it out. Here we go. A boy had a secret. It was a surprise. He wanted to tell his grandmother, and so he sent his secret through the mail. The story of that letter is the reason for this tale of the seven little postmen who carried the mail, because there was a secret in the letter. The boy sealed it with red sealing wax. Now, if anyone broke the seal, the secret would be out. And we can see the wax on top of the letter. Some people used to seal their letters that way. And then you would know for sure if it was safe when it got to you, because the wax would be in place.
He slipped the letter into the mailbox, and the first little postman took it from the box, put it in his bag, and walked 17 blocks to a big post office all built of rocks.
Hmm, it's a fancy looking building downtown, I'm guessing. The letter with the secret was dumped on a table with big and small letters that all needed the label of the big post office, okay? A stamp, stamp, clickety-click. The machinery ran with a quick, sharp tick. The letter with the secret is stamped at last, and the round black circle tells that it passed through the cancelling machine. Click, whiss, fast, okay? Now in the picture, we can see the post office people are working to pass all of these letters through this machine to make sure, oh, yep, they all have the proper stamps on them, and they all have clear addresses, okay? Big letters, small letters, thin and tall. The second Little Postman sorts them all. The letters are sorted from east to west, from north to south. And this letter had best go west, said the second Little Postman, scratching his chest. Into the pouch, lock it tight. The secret letter must travel all night. The third Little Postman, in the big mail car, comes to a crossroad, where waiting are a green, a yellow and a purple car. And they all stop there. There's nothing to say. The mail truck has the right of way. The mail must go through up and away. Through sleet and hail, this airplane carries the fastest mail. The pilot flies through whirling snow as far and as fast as the plane can go.