This year for Christmas and Hanukkah, I packaged and mailed cards and Frango mints to my husband’s clients.
There’s a whole story about Frangos which are from the now defunct Frederick & Nelson’s department store in Seattle. They were first sold in the early 1900s, then bought out by Marshall Fields, Bon Marche and now Macy’s. When I was a young girl, my mom would take me downtown Seattle to Christmas shop and have lunch at F&N’s. The end of the festive trip would be one melt- in-your-mouth Frango mint.
I have sent Frangos to my husband’s clients for years. My project beings with getting padded flat rate Priority Mail envelopes and labels from the post office. My local post office didn’t have any and suggested that I order them online.
One day, I ran out of envelopes and since I had a miserable cold, my husband drove to another post office further away to find more envelopes. He said it was like pulling teeth to get envelopes. One employee told him that they only have envelopes if people come in with them and return them unused.
Fast forward a week, my husband is getting calls from his clients thanking him for the delicious chocolates.
Then one woman calls and said she was confused about this year’s gift.
“Why?” he asked.
“Well, there’s a beautiful card, a delicious box of chocolates — and one dirty gray sock!”
She emailed him a photo of the three items together. And yes, the sock was really dirty!
The client said “I know you must use a service to mail these. You may want to speak with your service.”
The only thing we could figure out is the sock came in an envelope from the post office that my husband went to. I would stack the envelopes and place the card and Frangos inside and then tear off the plastic strip, fold and seal. I never once thought to look inside “empty” envelopes.
If I’m not fired from Frango duty next year, I WILL look inside each envelope.
How would you have responded to the woman who received the dirty sock?
This is what a Frango box looked like when I was a child and Marshall Field bought Frederick & Nelson.
