Boy Scout Camps, Mail Chutes, The Emily Morgan Hotel Across from the Alamo, and the Brother of the Mayor of Rochester, New York

Hell on Earth, a love story made good use out of a lot of unrelated events by giving the task of relating them to a caseworker. I reason I gave him this power is because I believe that even seemingly unrelated events often have something to do with each other—if you look hard enough. Not always, but sometimes.

This line of thinking, if it does nothing else, does give coincidences new meanings and increased importance because, now, you never know.

I was a boy scout in the late 1950’s in Rochester, New York. In spite of the brutal winters and rainy springs our troop managed at least one campout every quarter. We camped at the J Warren Cutler Scout Reservation but simply referred to it as Camp Cutler. We had great times but I can honestly say that after I doused the flames of my last campfire and rolled up my sleeping bag for the last time, I never gave Camp Cutler another thought. There were just too many other things going on.Fast forward fifty years and I’m standing in the lobby of the Emily Morgan Hotel, across the alley from the Alamo, waiting for an elevator. Kath and I will be checking out in a few moments after a 3-day vacation in San Antonio. I’m counting the floors as the elevator passes each one when something catches my eye.

There is a mail drop between the two elevators and it was manufactured at the Cutler Manufacturing Company in Rochester, New York. Well there’s a coincidence for you. Add that I was a mailman for 30 years and on a number of occasions retrieved mail from these mail drops and you’ve got something going on. I’m not sure what, but something.

It turns out that James Goold Cutler founded the Cutler Manufacturing Company
along with his brother, Joseph Warren Cutler and in 1883 patented the Mail Chute System. James, who was also the mayor of Rochester from 1904 – 1907, died in 1927. Joseph and his wife Amy continued to live at the family estate in the town of Webster until he died at which time she bequeathed the property, located about ten miles outside the city—or as we use to describe it, a good hike and a half, to the Boy Scouts of America.

The only link between the Cutler Boy Scout Camp, the Cutler Manufacturing Company and its patented Mail Chute System, the mail drop in the Emily Morgan Hotel in San Antonio and a letter carrier is myself—letter carrier, tourist and one time Boy Scout. So I guess this is my coincidence.

But keep your eyes open and your ears peeled (whatever the hell that means). There are coincidences all around us and one of them might just turn out to be yours.