“Six Degrees of Sound” investigates and connects the people and places that make up Annapolis.
If you’ve ever walked around Historic Annapolis and heard a lovely voice belting out “Build Me Up, Buttercup”chances are it’s Bonnie Williams, the letter carrier of the Maryland Ave. district. She calls herself the “mailman lady”.
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That’s a good deal of wisdom to make one think.
Sociologists and media theorists (or whatever you call people like Marshall McLuhan and Neil Postman), and anyone who loves to think and talk about how we communicate, could have some fun here discussing the value of mail for communities from Ms. Williams’ comments.
What a great interview. There’s an old-timey relational nature to her whole demeanor – from her job to her outlook on life and family and community. I think she’s right to emphasize the importance of tangible interactions, from small things like letters, to actually physically being with someone. It’s so simple, yet somewhat rare…
I call her the songbird. She is great and a fantastic member of our community.
Bonnie, keep up the great work!
Thanks for the story…. CB
Great portrait!
I know Bonnie as the friendly mail lady who always gives my lunch date a hard time for not holding my hand when we walk down the street. She has never been shy to tell him “You know you want to!” When he once said “The Navy won’t let me” (Because he was in uniform), Bonnie offered simply asked: “Where’s the Navy going to be in 30 years?”
Bonnie was one of the first people I met on Maryland Ave; what a generous soul!
The Sound gave us a verbal Norman Rockwell in this interview: Ms. Bonnie is everything comforting, everything determined, everything hopeful. I cannot think of higher praise for our own “mailman lady.”
Valerie,
You are making a fascinating comparison. Rockwell was certainly an expert at capturing (at least part of) the best of common “life as we know it.”