Delivering mail by jumping from a moving boat
čas přidán 14. 08. 2022
On Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, there's a summer tradition: "mail jumping". It's a bit dangerous, a bit ridiculous, and would never be allowed to start today. But it's a tradition. ■ Thanks to the Lake Geneva Cruise Line: www.cruiselakegeneva.com/
Edited by Michelle Martin twitter.com/mrsmmartin
I'm at tomscott.com
on Twitter at twitter.com/tomscott
on Facebook at facebook.com/tomscott
and on Instagram as tomscottgo
Edited by Michelle Martin twitter.com/mrsmmartin
I'm at tomscott.com
on Twitter at twitter.com/tomscott
on Facebook at facebook.com/tomscott
and on Instagram as tomscottgo
7:44
How one little boat (and me) held up miles of London traffic at Tower Bridge
Tom Scott
zhlédnutí 3 200 000
Komentáře
And to answer the obvious question: yes, there are other ways to get the mail delivered these days. But it's a tradition, and one that a few lakehouses are happy to continue!
Looks fun! Thanks for this Tom Scott :)
My butt puckered up. 😆
@sailaab There are legal jobs far more dangerous than this
Massive dork
@AnArn B TRADITION!
Tom is really out here completing side quests
Somewhere out there, a princess has been waiting for Tom for almost ten years.
@Reynsoon this is the city where Dungeons and Dragons was invented
be quiet, Be quiet! BE QUIET. STOP DONT SAY THAT.
Thank you for my golden claw dragon born
It’s a lot of fun to watch :D
I love how much Tom overcomplicated this. "so I run toward the mailbox, I put it in the mailbox, I turn around from the mailbox, I go back toward the boat" 😂
@PAKTRA PRODUCTIONS 😂😂😂
And I stopped to get a croissant
hes a programmer, he likes to split things into smaller individual problems
I don't get how you can complicate it less
"Kiss the goose."
"They know that their outgoing mail might have toothmarks in it" is probably my favourite bit.
4:18
Her tooth mark?
Imagine: "Job applicants are required to bite down on an envelope to ensure they meet orthodontic requirements - with open bites ending several aspirant mail jumpers' dreams."
Tom just seems so genuine now, and you can tell he loves doing CS-tv. Something a lot of people don't have.
He always was genuine :)
Explain that to Nikocado Avocado.
@nul And then still got a vpn sponsor after that video
I mean, this is the same guy who got a VPN sponsor and ended up dunking on VPN sponsors instead. I knew right at that moment, Tom Scott was more about the passion than the payment. Still a relief to see that hasn't died out.
I certainly hope he does, because he's been on CS-tv longer than some CS-tvrs have been alive!
It’s so weird to hear Tom describe this job being done by “people half his age” because I always envision him as being just a little older than me, which would mean half his age is quite young.
@Joshua Tootell We should probably just feel a bit jealous he has more fun at work than most of us.
Not sure if I should feel old for being older than Tom, or feel young for feeling like I am younger than Tom
@Fyn Kozari I don't know if you know this but 8 years ago he would have been 30. He had already been out for a couple years.
@Anna McCray I thought people are out of college mid twenties? Last time I was studying college was 20.
I mean, think about it like this, he hit 100k subs 8 years ago and was already out of college
Love Paige’s surprised “Oh, he did it!”
Many a commenter before me has expressed the shocking feeling one gets when Tom Scott stops by a place where one has been before. Today, as someone from Wisconsin who has been to Lake Geneva several times, I finally understand what it's like. I shall now be the one to say, wow, I never knew that an amazing place like this exists in my neck of the woods!
My family lives down there and it's wild seeing him where I've been multiple times 😅
@Colin Zinngrabe Elkhorn***
Lake Geneva also happens to be where the TTRPG Dungeons and Dragons was invented.
Same. Tom came to Wisconsin and didn't even say hi 🤣
It's a funny feeling isn't it; twice he's been to interesting places a few miles from where I live - one that I already knew a bit about, one that I didn't - and in one of them the guy he spoke to about it used to be one of my neighbours!
If you're wondering about that yellow flashlight on his back, it's a common lifesaving light for personal flotation devices. They start blinking if they detect they're wet and float next to you, so people can find you if you fall into the water at night.
I was not wondering about that but I'm grateful for the info!!!
This seems like a wonderfully unique tourist attraction! It also feels like it's the kinda wonky tradition that has just been kept alive cause everyone involved is just so very happy to be a part of it :D
@Dani Studwell so is leaking volleyball team photos apparently
It indeed does look very fun
It's the Wisconsin way.
I love it that he actually copied her kissing the goose, that's so essential for the mail delivery! ❤
This isn't the point of the video but what really surprised me was 'outgoing mail'. For some reason I didn't realise in America you can just put outgoing post in your own mailbox to be taken away.
@Nut Bastard For my entire life, I saw those flags on TV and assumed was the opposite. I thought the mail delivery person put the flag up to tell the residents that they had received something.
@Timeyy The postal service in the USA isn't perfect, but it is very good compared to a lot of other countries in terms of how well it actually does work. It was designed around rural parameters, and before rail and cars and whatnot. The US is preposterously large, and a good portion of people don't live anywhere near anything even resembling a city. Coast to coast is well over 40 hours of driving. That's more than a work week to just traverse the country, with no stops. Paris to Moscow is only 30 hours. So the whole idea of outgoing mail makes sense because there are vast stretches of the US where there's hardly anything at all. But there is postal service for all of it.
@Nut Bastard Bruh Ive been looking at US mailboxes on TV for like 20 years and never even wondered what that thing was actually for lmao
Yep. That's what the flag is for. You put it up if you have outgoing mail.
The people involved seem so nice. Paige is so encouraging and the captain has so much of a "let the kids have fun, I'll make sure they're safe" vibe.
@Paul Haynes Maybe because 330 million people live in the US???
@M Fr there's 330 million people in the US. 💀🤦
@HE’S coming soon you were right, He came this morning.
@Justin McGough Life is politics. ignore that fact at your own risk
It surprises me that out of all the weird things we do in Wisconsin this is the one Scott chose to cover. But at the same time it doesn't really surprise me lmao
Mind blown. Tom Scott in Lake Geneva, just up the road. Good to see a Brit willing to explore beyond the US coasts (NY, LA, FL).
It's cool to see a place I know on CS-tv, but I agree with you on the weird stuff in Wisconsin
Tom is out here doing every side quest the game has to offer
I like the acknowledgement that he still had his mic on, and then going for the jump without taking it off anyway, as if there may have been some insightful commentary that wasn't worth missing for the sake of possibly buying a new mic... But he made it so it all worked out fine
@J Blen If it was some kind of wireless mic then it'd be transmitting good audio through to a dry receiver right up til the moment it stopped functioning. From a video editing perspective, it would have been fantastic to have the sound of him falling in the water from his audio pov.
@J Blen the drive is probably fine so he could get the audio off it I'm guessing. It depends I guess
@logan richerson if he fails though, he doesn't have the commentary because the mic is now soaked and shorted. I mean I guess it depends how waterproof it is and how hard he fails.
The way I see it, it's just a cost of doing buisness. If he breaks the mic, it's going to cost him less than the benefit he'd get on the video for having it on. He either succeeded and doesn't loose anything but gains commentary, or he fails and still has the commentary which would be really funny and has to replace the mic, of which I'm sure he has spares
As someone with a parent in the USPS, I love seeing the quirky yet still active parts of the Mail Service. I love it.
Being from Wisconsin, it's so fun to see Tom here exploring quirky traditions I didn't know about! Thanks for visiting Tom! I need to go check this out myself!
The lake is very fun, I have a house in Williams Bay
Tom Scott exploring the weirder parts of the postal system is a miniseries I am loving so far.
Yessir
you cant pay me enough to put grimey letters in my mouth of jump into a grimey lake and have some old boomer back up into me in reverse instead of drive some day
@KingBobXIV Not to mention mandated in the Constitution. A handy way to weed out charlatan politicians.
The more I see videos like this, the more I realize it's surprising that there isn't yet a CS-tvr whose niche is talking about the postal system.
You know there was a small Scottish Isle off of a medium Scottish Isle (North Harris) where the Royal Mail experimented with rockets. Unsurprisingly they stopped decades ago.
Anyone else throw their arms up in celebration with Tom when he successfully got back on the boat? Good job Tom 😁🥳
It’s always so fun to watch Tom try things out, and this incredibly wacky mail delivery system was very good to watch! Always so happy to see how motivated you are to overcome challenges!
Tom, that was one of your best videos. Fun, informative and amazing. It made me smile - and your joy at not falling in or missing the boat, was a great ending. It’s heartwarming to see this 100+ year old service being kept up as a real meal delivery and a tourist attraction. One more place to add to my bucket list!
Honestly made me laugh but not mockingly. I enjoyed every second of this and it's nice that they're still doing this awesome tradition for decades now. I hope it continues even further.
Tom’s nervous laugh is one of my favourite things! That was really exciting to watch- thank you!
Tom, thank you for visiting us and making a video about Lake Geneva Cruise Line! It was great to meet you, and we think you did an amazing job delivering the mail -- come back any time for a job as a mail jumper on the US Mailboat! 😃
@Michael Freeze I think it was mentioned that it's effectively grandfathered in. It's still only a thing because it started before those were considerations, and it's not like they're totally cavalier about it, there is some significant effort made to be as safe as possible.
Is it a bad idea? Yes, and I love it.
@Michael Freeze uh huh. Sure, buddy.
in most other countries that wouldn't be allowed because of occupational health and safety regulations but the USA doesn't seem to care about things like employee safety.
Thanks for having Tom come along! Visited you guys a few years ago so it was awesome to see this! :)
Tom is the perfect example of "if you can't overcome your fear, do it scared"
I live in Wisconsin but had never heard of this before seeing your video. I bought tickets immediately and went on the cruise today. Thanks for making my weekend!
It’s fun to think that every Tom Scott video is like a postcard from a friend telling you about a cool place they found.
I went on this tour a few years ago, it was so awesome to see kids my age (at the time) have such a fun and unique experience. I was and still am 100% jealous of their summer job XD
I've been watching your videos for years and I have to say that an opening line of "this is objectively a bad idea" is humorously characteristic of them. Well done!
These experiential videos of Tom doing weird jobs/tasks are just the absolute best.
Tom is really turning into an athlete. Parkour, wrestling, now boat jumping. Really fun to watch him take on all of these sports and challenges
Tom went for the style points. What a legend
I love that Tom's way of coping with nerves is to give a running commentary of everything he's doing. Natural television presenter.
Very relatable
keep hustling
@Scanlaid please
Bumping this with a thin glimmer of hope that Tom sees it. I'd watch the *heck* out of a Tom Scott / Mike Rowe crossover! edit: fixed typo
@Scanlaid Tom Scott + Mike Rowe?
This is amazing! I've seen the videos of the teens at their best and worse jumps and always wanted to see you do it, Tom. You've made my year! Thanks, Tom!
This is one of those jobs you'd hear about from old folks that can't possibly still exist today, surely it's an urban legend... Great job getting the extra goose points!
What an awesome episode! Good job, Tom, and thanks for sharing!
This is really cool. I love that they keep a tradition alive, making it safer with the ladders and vests. It so amazing.
I kinda want a regular mail driver to go through all the risks they take just to show tom this isn't any more risky than that
Great to hear these people talk about this, seems like they really enjoy doing it. Also big props to you for rocking it Tom!
The way he aggressively and audibly kissed the goose 😂
This video made me smile more than it should have 😅 This mail-delivering system is both absurd and awesome
I love seeing Tom get so nervous about delivering Mail
Tom getting so pumped when he managed to get off and then back on the boat was fantastic!
I think the driver must be praised too here guiding the boat so close to the platform and not hitting it every single time is commendable.
@Blyskawica1 Strictly boats have commanders and some boats do have drivers- a driver is someone who controls the engine, and in a traditional narrowboat they are literally driving horses to pull them along.
Much practice.
Why do you think someone falls into the water on a weekly basis. The captain was to far from the dock
‚Captain’! Boats don’t have drivers!
I didnt consider this, huh.
I worked for the company that owns this cruise in 2016 but in a restaurant and discovered this. It seemed really unique and quite fun thing. They do cruises in winter time as well, and wedding ceremonies which are quite fun. I'm happy I got a chance to see this in person.
It was fun to see you made it and were so happy about it! 👍💜
I love all of your videos but this has to be my favorite so far. So simple and fun while being informative about this interesting little tradition.
How simply adorable this tradition is. :) It gives me very good vibes :)
What a lovely and pleasant bunch of people they all are
I think what I love most about Tom is his willingness and motivation to try crazy and interesting things despite being obviously uncomfortable and sometimes terrified. Awesome bloke.
He's a modern-day John Noakes.
@Yuki Co-signed bigtime. As someone who suffers from panic disorder (though my attacks don't really spring from any specific 'phobia'), I found his rollercoaster video legitimately one of the most motivating things I've ever seen. I empathized with him so much and actually--hmm do I admit this to a bunch of strangers? oh what the heck--cried a bit when he conquered that phobia and realized what he'd been missing. Just a lovely, inspiring moment.
@Yuki 100%. I've found myself thinking back to the roller coaster video and thinking "Okay, what would Tom Scott do?" when I'm nervous about doing something new.
@sirBrouwer I understood that reference.
argon For our entertainment..
I think it's so cool (and actually crucial in some ways) that so many of these 'silly' cultural things still happen all over the world. I hope they never go away.
I love how Tom's response to any stress at this point is to just scream as loud as he can
Toms videos are more commonly becoming "Things I could have done as a kid" and that's great.
This seems like such a fun summer job
I'm loving these mail related videos :)
Tom is so hilariously uncoordinated. I'm really impressed that he's putting himself in so obviously uncomfortable situations
If u really want to see how uncoordinated tom is, check out the parkour video
It surprises me that out of all the weird things we do in Wisconsin this is the one Scott chose to cover. But at the same time it doesn't really surprise me lmao
That looks like such a fun job. But then, I'm weird and enjoy showing off by jumping between moving things like this, haha. I used to always volunteer to jump off the boat and help it from the dock when we boated with friends. It was like easy-mode running, all I had to do was move my legs, the boat did the hard part and gave me the momentum
This is cool, i drive boats as close as possible to things as well, for tourism of course. Don't live anywhere near the USA but these guys look like they have a great crew, fun work environment and would love to visit one day.
This was positively delightful. I love how perennially willing you are to put yourself out there and maybe look like a fool, maybe nail it, but always represent your subjects well and shine a light on interesting parts of the world that might otherwise be missed. Increasingly, I find myself wondering: Are your videos archived anywhere other than CS-tv's servers? Many of these would be quite at home safely in the archives of something like the US Library of Congress, or the equivalents of other nations.
I'm loving seeing these small quirky things being shown to millions of people
Lived in this region most of my life and I've never heard of this. Absolutely amazing. Next thing you know, Tom's going to learn to play Hammer-Schlagen!
tom is so scared to be physical yet he is so physical these days.
He trying to prove to himself he can still keep up with the whippersnappers.
Getting body-slamed, tightrope walking, jumping off a boat to deliver mail, parkour ... at some point Tom is going to need to admit that he's developing some degree of physical fitness.
My body is ready
So wholesome and entertaining. Awesome work
I used to go up to Lake Geneva every summer and I remember going on these boats with my grandma. Its nice to have the memories come back.
this is one of the most wholesome videos Tom has made
This was awesome. It’s like a snapshot of history 😊
This looks like so much fun, perfect summer job
Imagine if a pizza delivery guy can speedrun his way to reach for the customer's house by doing exact the same thing as Tom does.
Why are you talking about pizza? They only deliver mail this way.
@Rataplan na thats only if someone else is sending it from the same system
@Kempeth A paper route but for pizza
@Feakre Maybe... But not Jimmy John's! They'll somehow get their car over the water and onto the lawn before you can hang up your phone or close the browser window after you have ordered.
This just makes me wonder how these guys get pizza delivered.
I love lake Geneva! My grandparents live about 10 minutes away and we used to watch these guys do this all the time!
I hope you enjoyed Wisconsin! I hope you had time to talk about The Great Peshtigo Fire, the invention of the QWERTY keyboard, the birthplace of Dungeons and Dragons, The House on the Rock, and the Milwaukee Bridge War.
This seems like a fun job!! Thanks for showing this, Tom!!
It's nice to know Tom's got a side hustle for the summer!
I remember when I felt like a nerd for watching Tom Scott, now everyone watches him!
The little kiss to the goose is adorable. Like this practice needed to be more charming :)
I'm so glad they went with the goose mailbox instead of a boring normal mailbox.
The best part was hearing her excitedly say "He did it!"
@Munchmunch Well it was a goose, they don't do anything but aggressive :)
It was agresive kiss
Those two practically kissed!
I knew about this mail delivery already, but this video was fun. Love the ending
Awesome job. As a youth I would've 100% applied for that if it was in my area.
As a mail carrier, I enjoyed this video immensely!
Always keep hold of the railing, Tom! Hand over hand, one hand for the ship and one for yourself!
Good one Tom! Reminds me of travelling to school by train in the days when you could open doors and windows, and run across tracks :)
I love how about 3 seconds after letting out a primal scream, Tom still politely kisses the goose before departing
As someone who lives in the area, you're supposed to kiss the goose before you go out for good luck!
+
He was going to get those style points no matter what.
It's not polite to keep a lady waiting
America is weirdly fun. Loving Tom's visit to this country so far
Looks like fun. What an awesome summer job.
Among the best summer jobs one can dream of. I retroactively envy those guys.
My grandparents live in lake Geneva, I used to live with them for a couple years with my dad, and I have to say this is such a cool thing to find out. I will have to see if I could watch this one day.
This looks so fun! Good job on the newspaper delivery Tom 👍😂
Tom! I grew up on Lake Geneva, spent my youth on my father's boat on the waves, and he worked for nearly 30 years at Gage Marine, the company that owns these boats (The flag with the G on the employees shirts!). I just recently lost him. Seeing this pop up now on my feed gave me a huge smile. The boat jumpers are a local legend in our area. Thanks for a nice reminder of dad!
Rest in peace for your dad, Hope you have good memories
i'm real glad you got this as a sweet reminder :-) wish you the best!
sorry for you loss
Rip
I live in Wisconsin and was just by Lake Geneva this weekend! I was not expecting a video from Tom about my state! Very cool I never knew this was a thing so close to me
This looks like so much fun, love it
Tom never fails to hold my attention. No matter what the subject, I know I will always find it interesting. And he keeps them short to stay in line with my short attention span! Love him!
Even I was clapping. Well done Tom 🙌.
As someone who occasionally orders live tarantulas, this made me unreasonably nervous
I spent a summer at Lake Geneva a few years ago, and it's wild to see Tom having a very similar reaction to the one I had when I learned about this.
@cooldloop Not quite. I volunteered at a rich people auction, and the volunteers were all entered in a raffle that I won.
But....tradition! The catch-all argument against the sensible. The fact that these entertainers have the clean the boat's toilets says everything about what's actually going on here.
@cooldloop There are a lot of places to stay in the area for people on vacation and not everyone owns a house there or knows someone who does.
@Fakjbf me tho X_x
@cooldloop If not on the lake it's cheap. I grew up there.
Irs great to see Tom getting out & trying X. This is my favorite hands-on experience yet!
Respect to you, Tom! I would be having the same feelings as soon as I step out on the side 😃
It's so cool to see Tom Scott in a place I have visited often
I work right down the road from the lake at the Urban Cloud Factory. To see tom Scott highlighting one of Lake Geneva's more old school features. Was very cool. Thank you tom, swing by us next time you're in the area!
There's a place called house on the rock in Wisconsin, there's something called the infinity room, an automatic orchestra, the worlds largest carousel, and a bunch of other wild things you'd probably like.
Fun fact: The town is called "Lake Geneva" while the lake is called "Geneva Lake". They were both originally named after Geneva NY (confusingly split into the city and town of Geneva) which in turn was supposedly named after Geneva, Switzerland. Edit: To avoid confusion with Geneva IL, both were later renamed "Lake Geneva" and "Geneva Lake" respectively.
In Oregon, there's a city named Lake Oswego, which is, of course, situated around Oswego Lake, so I guess that's a pattern.
@duckrutt Nah, there are only 16 towns, cities, or villages called Lafayette or LaFayette in the US, and three of them are in Wisconsin.
@ODST General if you do get into D&D and find yourself back in the area, you can complete the pilgrimage to Gygax’s grave to bless your dice
@Fabian Wunderle I’ve never heard anyone use that in French. But this may depend on where they’re from. Especially people from Vaud are usually very adamant in having it called Lac Léman
@Ironborn BTW Not big on D&D, but as a fairly nerdy guy who lived out that way I am a bit surprised I didn't know that.
That was cool, thanks for sharing. :-) I think it's awesome that they still do that and a shame that regulations kill everybody's fun.