Large Fierce Mammal

Hank Snow was the musical idol of my late Father, who sounded a lot like him when he sang. You’ll notice that the new stamp honouring Hank Snow bears no mark of monetary value. That’s because here in Canada, we don’t know the latest postage price increase from one minute to the next. (Source: Canada Post – click the image to enlarge)

Last December I posted a piece here called Drying Up and Blowing Away that spoke to my contempt for the Canada Post Corporation. From that, you won’t be surprised that I greeted last Friday’s announcement of a commemorative Hank Snow stamp with a snort of mirth born of irony. The choice was perfect.

For those of you who don’t have a grounding in good old country and western music, Hank Snow (AKA The Singin’ Ranger, back in the day before  the term “Ranger” had any widespread public connection with Chuck Norris or anyone named Strider) was a native son of Liverpool, Nova Scotia; a small town located about a half hour drive west of where I’m sitting, and from such humble beginnings grew a country music legend.

Where the irony comes into the issue is how perfectly a couple of ol’ Hank’s more famous hits fill the bill as theme music for the Canadian mail service.

There’s no better song for a piece of mail to be singing as it’s being dropped with all sincerity and no small amount of hopeful naivete into one of those big red mail drop boxes than I’m Movin’ On ….

And just as a story consists of three vital parts – beginning, middle, and end – so too does the saga of every piece of mail, and even more perfectly fitting than my previous example, here’s musical accompaniment for that all too common and inexplicably delayed arrival in your mail box, whether or not you are actually the one to whom it was mailed in the first place.

“Where the hell have you been all these weeks?” you ask?

“I’ve Been Everywhere!”