When the U.S. Post Office first began delivering packages in 1913, people got excited and mailed all sorts of surprising things – including their kids. The first baby was mailed 1 mile from his parents’ home to his grandmother’s. Kids weren’t actually sealed up in boxes or covered with stamps, of course: they just traveled with a postman. Two years later a law was passed against mailing kids, but before then one 6-year-old girl went 721 miles by mail train from Florida to Virginia for just 15 cents!
Wee ones: If people mailed the 1st baby plus 5 more kids, how many children were mailed in total?
Little kids: If you got mailed 100 miles from home and then mailed back, how far would you have traveled? Bonus: If people started mailing kids in 1913 and it became against the law 2 years later, when was it finally illegal?
Big kids: For how long has the post office been shipping packages, as of now in 2024? Bonus: Back in 1913 it cost a 2-cent stamp to mail 1 ounce. If the baby weighed 10 pounds, what postage should they have charged to ship him? (Reminder: 1 pound has 16 ounces.)
Answers:
Wee ones: 6 kids in total.
Little kids: 200 miles. Bonus: In 1915.
Big kids: 111 years. Bonus: $3.20, since he weighed 160 ounces.
