When people need things from a distance they cannot always go all the way to the place and bring back the products or articles. It is quicker and easier to send messages asking for what is needed.

How would your mother send an order for items if she did not wish to go to the store for them?

How could a farmer send a message to the city ordering new milk cans and strawberry boxes?

How do messages come to your home?

In olden days, people carried messages for themselves or sent them by other people. The messenger would often run for miles without resting to deliver the letters as soon as possible. At last people decided to give all of their letters to a postman who would ride on horseback from place to place with the mail. The image below shows the pony express map, where mail was carried on horseback between California and Missouri.

Stagecoaches were next used. It took a week for a coach to go as far as a train can go now in a few hours. Our mail is now carried from one place to another by trains or vessels, and then the letter carriers deliver it at our city homes or to our town post office or rural mailbox.

Today, some of the quickest ways to send a message is via analog telephone, cell phone, or computer. Messages are moved thousands of miles in seconds over wires or through the air.

Notebook Work: Draw two computers exchanging messages from far distances apart.