- published: 12 Feb 2016
- views: 7978
Airmail (or air mail) is a mail transport service branded and sold on the basis of being airborne. Airmail items typically arrive more quickly than surface mail, and usually cost more to send. Airmail may be the only option for sending mail to some destinations, such as overseas, if the mail cannot wait the time it would take to arrive by ship, sometimes weeks. The Universal Postal Union adopted comprehensive rules for airmail at its 1929 Postal Union Congress in London. Since the official language of the Universal Postal Union is French, airmail items world-wide are often marked Par avion , literally: "by airplane".
For about the first half century of its existence, transportation of mail via aircraft was usually categorized and sold as a separate service (airmail) from surface mail. Today it is often the case that mail service is categorized and sold according to transit time alone, with mode of transport (land, sea, air) being decided on the back end in dynamic intermodal combinations. Thus even "regular" mail may make part of its journey on an aircraft. Such "air-speeded" mail is different from nominal airmail in its branding, price, and priority of service.
Fallen down
He’s too weary
Can’t get up
His eyes are blurry
Chinatown
He just fades away
He’s drunk up 1/2 his weight in sherry
Swallowed the apothecary
Whispering a farewell lullaby
I’ve seen enough in my old life
Just send an airmail to my wife
Tell her her hobo’s gone and died
And that my world is looking wide
He came to town
37 years ago
His hair was long
His eyes were blue
He lived down by the sea
Head full of poetry
Rock & roll and galleries
Nickel bags and happenings
The fall of ’63
I’ve seen enough in my old life… etc.
The years rolled by
3rd & Broadway caught his eye
Black tar, speed and china white
Took it all away
Left him in ragged clothes
Cardboard boxes for a home
An old man when he should be young
Trashing through the day