NIXIES
During WW II, men and women by the thousands left the south for the factories and industries of the north. Many were not that well educated, and putting an address on an envelope for mailing home was a chore. There were times when an address for delivery in Muskegon consisted of a diagram -- a map, and a name:
"Second house from the corner of 6th, near Muskegon Piston Ring."
This was an address that Frank Hutchison on City Route 24 received, and delivered.
In the late 50's, when directory service was discontinued in the Muskegon Post Office, George 'Shorty' Rojan, and Warren McDaniels were handling the nixie mail. The Nixie case is a letter's last chance of delivery. A piece of mail with a bad address, no address, an incomplete address,or an address that just couldn't be read, is a nixie.
When directory service was discontinued, only the memory of the clerk could be used to direct a nixie to the right carrier.
Many factory workers from the south found residences in East Muskegon. Some on Evanston, which in early days of Muskegon was called the 'Old Grand Rapids Road'.
Shorty Rojan and Warren McDaniels knew this, and would simply direct the piece of mail to City Route 44, Ed Omness, or City Route 8, Stan Stevens.
One of the cities that was heavily recruited by Muskegon factories was Magnolia, Arkansas. As late as the early 60's, the seperation cases in the out-going mailing division had a hold-out for Magnolia, Arkansas. Carl Wynne explained why to newly trained mail clerks.
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