Alfred Pinke

- Yes, date unknown

• Name	Alfred Pinke
  Gender	Male
  Occupation	postal worker
  Eby ID Number	Waterloo-233081
  Died	Yes, date unknown
  Person ID	I233081	Generations
  Last Modified	9 Sep 2024

  
  

• Notes

  Recalls First Parcel Post Delivery Here Did you get a parcel from the post office today? If you did yours was one of 649 parcels delivered in Kitchener to day. That's a far cry from the 16 parcels delivered in the city 40 years ago [1914] today by Alfred Pinke. That day marked the Inauguration of parcel post here and Mr. Pinke, 81 Hohner Ave., was the first man to deliver parcels in Kitchener. USED HORSE, BUGGY At that time he did it by a rented horse and buggy. Today five shiny new trucks. speed parcels in your door in a matter of minutes. And they work an eight hour day, while Mr. Pinke started work at sam. and " didn't pull in till 10 p.m. every night." he said. Besides delivering parcels the service now includes the distribution of bundles of mail to relay points throughout the city. Today postmen picked up mail bundles delivered by the parcel post service. The "driving force" for parcel post in, Kitchener at that time was the postmaster C. F. Niehaus, said Mr. Pinke. Although the feeling in Kitchener at that time was the city was not big enough for the service the postmaster said, "parcels come here to be delivered and not to be stored. RENTED SERVICE "The rig that I drove that first day was so dilapidated that all the children called out "I haven't get any rags today mister" The horse and buggy were rented from the late Bert Hewitt's quick delivery service for $1 an hour by the post office. "There weren't any parcels that morning but in the afternoon I delivered the first package to the Lutheran Book Store," said Mr. Pinke. The first parcel to be sent out of the city by the service was from The Record to the Elmira correspondent," he said. Fourteen months later Mr. Pinke's position was taken over by one of the first returned veterans of the First World War, Jack Brown. Mr. Pinke then became a regular mailman for the post office and tramped the same route for almost 25 years. SERVICE WAS FREE "During the first few weeks of the service I had a hard time convincing the people that delivery was free. Everybody how much the express charge was", he said. Attempting to explain the new service one lady, she replied, "Oh yes, this is the new parasol post I read about," said Mr. Pinke. Kitchener's first parcel postman retired from the post office in 1949 and now looks after all mail problems at the Economical Mutual Insurance Company. Kitchener-Waterloo Record Wed, Feb 10, 1954 Page 3