Elaine Kanelos

Mail Jumper!: the Story of the First Mail Girl Elaine Kanelos

From the age of six, author Elaine Kanelos knew one thing: she wanted to deliver the mail on Lake Geneva's US mail boat. In this memoir, she recalls how she achieved her dream and explains how mail jumpers do their job. She recounts close calls on the boat and lakeside high jinks with coworkers and friends as well as a multitude of joyous adventures on the waters of one of the Midwest's most beautiful lakes. In Mail Jumper! the journey begins at Kanelos's summer home in one of the lake's beautiful historic mansions. From there, she describes a host of her escapades and mishaps growing up on the lake. She also goes inside the world of many of Lake Geneva's homes and iconic places and shares the story of her twenty-seven years on the lake. Familiar, funny, and full of heart, this personal narrative provides a one-of-a-kind glimpse into the world of the mail jumpers from the girl who did it first. It draws back the curtain on the US mail boat, Lake Geneva's history, and life in its inner circle, as Kanelos remembers becoming the first girl to break a sixty-year tradition by jumping the US mail.