"May, which stamp would you like to wear?"

It was on this day, June 13, 88 years ago in 1920 that the US Postal Service ruled that children may not be sent via parcel post. The parcel post method of shipping, in which items can weigh up to 70 pounds, was started by Postmaster General Frank H. Hitchcock on January 1, 1913 under the administration of President Taft. According to this Smithsonian Institution Libraries site, "In 1914, the parents of a blonde four-year-old named May Pierstroff sent her from Grangeville, Idaho to her grandparents in another part of the state for 53 cents, the going rate for chickens. Word of her excursion quickly prompted the Post Office Department to forbid sending any human being by mail."

Perhaps the US Postal Service should reconsider this restriction given its lack of business in recent years.