7 a.m. | 7 p.m.

[SoothingDave]

I'd never seen such a thing. Seems like it's pointless. If the address was all on one line, sure, it makes sense. But on separate lines?

 

[GoesStation]

Ugh, I don't like that (with the possible exception of the first).

What do you think the point was?

I have no idea, but if you look at old American postcards, you'll see it was pretty universal.

When I noticed that ems's example included the postal code, I think I discovered why the commas vanished from American use. The post office introduced our version of postal codes, the Zip code, in 1963 and began heavily promoting their use a few years later. The ad campaign also promoted the new two-letter state abbreviations introduced at the same time — and the preferred way to lay out addresses, which eliminated all commas except for one to separate the city name from that of the state.

 

[emsr2d2]

Well, I've learnt something. When I read in GS's post that zip codes were introduced only in 1963, I thought "Wow, that's late! Surely we'd had them for decades (if not centuries)". I thought I'd better check. Imagine my surprise when I discovered they were introduced in the UK in 1959 only in Norwich and then rolled out across the country in 1960.

 

[Rover_KE]

When I noticed that ems's example included the [STRIKE]postal code[/STRIKE] postcode ...

;-)

 

[GoesStation]

;-)

Thanks, Rover_KE. "Postal code" is the generic term for such things. I've now learned that "postcode" is the Royal Mail's name for British ones, like "Zip code" and the US Postal Service.

 

[SoothingDave]

ZIP is supposed to stand for Zone Improvement Plan, but it sounds more like they liked the acronym and found a way to fit words into it.