Bill, The Irish Mail was a local out of Eola up both sides of the Fox River
from Aurora to West Batavia and Batavia (at one time on the East side it went
all the way to W Chicago). When General Mills got its plant at West Chicago
fully operational one job working 16 hrs a day couldn't handle both sides of
the river so gradually 3 more jobs were added operating from Eola to West
Chicago(5:00AM,1:00PM,9:00pm were more or less the starting times).These jobs
were often referred to by the name "Irish Mail and the starting time(1;00PM
Irish Mail for example). The old timers took great offense to these and would
gruffly correct any youngster w/" there's only one Irish Mail and it works
both sides of the river" then you would be informed that this job is the
1:00PM Mail,for example. Note the absence of "Irish". Leo
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