Post card sent from Wash U. delivered 39 years later

LEBANON, Ill. (AP) -- McKendree University officials are trying to unravel the reason it took 39 years for a postcard to get from Washington University in St. Louis to the school in Lebanon.

The mystery began last week, when a McKendree employee went to the Lebanon post office and picked up about 2,000 pieces of mail for students, faculty and staff. In the bundle was a postcard addressed to "Mr. Robert Bruce Koch" at 323 Baker Hall.

The postcard -- mailed April 6, 1970, with metered postage of 5 cents -- has a preprinted message informing Koch his application to the school had been received.

Valerie Hughes of the U.S. Postal said mail occasionally shows up after decades of being caught in the bottom of a bag or stuck in a crack.

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Information from: Belleville News-Democrat, http://www.bnd.com

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