I think anyone and everyone who’s purchased something from a distance and had it shipped in the mail has experienced faint disappointment, mild irritation, or sheer unblinking fury when it didn’t arrive in time. In fact, I think that’s especially true nowadays with online retail having such a huge presence. I know I’ve rushed home from time to time, expectantly awaiting a package, only to slouch off in disappointment when I saw I hadn’t received anything. And then of course, there’s that brief moment of elation once you receive exactly what you’ve been waiting for. Imagine then, that the package you expected had been delayed. And not just a week, not just a month, not even just a year. Imagine that you ordered a package 40 years ago, and you’re only just receiving it now. That was exactly what happened to a Tennis club in Melbourne.

Viewbank Tennis Club recently received a package; grimy, oil stained, and 4 decades later than expected. Ordered in the mid 1970’s the carton contained sew on patches that were to be used to customise the club’s uniforms. Instead, it apparently fell behind some mail sorting machinery, and was forgotten for decades, only being discovered when the staff were preparing to move locations. Surprisingly enough, the Post Office decided to deliver it and perhaps even more surprisingly, the person it was originally addressed to all those years ago still happens to live in the exact same location.

Having received replacements for their missing patches 40 years ago, the arrival of this barely remembered order came as a bit of a surprise. The Club’s Committee are apparently keen to make use of these vintage and amazingly, undamaged patches. While the order might have arrived late for the intended purpose, they've arrived a few years early for the Club's 50th Anniversary. How's that for postal service? Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, nor 40 years lost behind some sorting machinery, stays these couriers from the "swift" completion of their appointed rounds.

First seen on: http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/parcel-finally-arrives-at-viewbank-tennis-club-40-years-after-it-was-sent/story-fnkgdftz-1227533427476