What does RFD stand for?
Younger folks and city slickers sometimes act puzzled when they hear the name “RFD-TV.” They don’t know the meaning behind the letters. They don’t know their history, that’s all. But rural folks do. RFD – Rural Free Delivery – by the U.S. Postal Service is one of the most important developments in American rural history. It’s even commemorated by a special stamp, issued in 1996 upon the centennial of RFD postal service and presented at the convention of the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association in Charleston, W.Va. According to the Postal Service, the image on the stamp is based on a photograph of an early rural carrier alongside his horse-drawn mail wagon. There were no telephones in those days, of course. No radios, no TVs. People stayed in touch by mail, and that was about it. For rural people, it was a problem. They had to go to the post office to get their mail. Many people lived so many miles from town, they collected their mail only once every several weeks. As communicati
