WASHINGTON — The post office line remains one of the few settings in American life where citizens of differing views stand together for extended periods without speaking, according to observers.
The arrangement requires no organization, no invitation and no agreement beyond the order of arrival.
“Nobody talks,” one customer said. “But everybody understands.”
Participants report a shared awareness of the number of open windows, the progress of the person at the counter and the individual who will attempt to ask a complicated question.
“You feel it when it's about to happen,” another customer said.
The complicated question, when it arrives, unites the line in silence.
Researchers note that the experience produces no lasting relationships and no exchange of names, yet is consistently described as communal.
Average wait times were described as ordinary.
The line moved.
