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This is not a restaurant review. This is not an event preview. However, this is a review of one of my favorite places in Center City. Window 24 at the William Penn Annex Post Office on 9th Street rivals the Kimmel Center, Rittenhouse Square, and the Art Museum for its rewards after a visit there. It is a place where you will be treated like a real person in a setting that often feels like a Soviet-style bread line. This location should be a destination in the middle of your day to learn about the meaning of life. A place to be encouraged, respected, and finally feel that sense of community that is so often lacking amidst our rushed pace in this society.

Window 24 is a little oasis in a big city where a little home-spun wisdom and the optimistic voice of a dreamer comes through to the weary traveler that happens by. It is a place where competence and a smile replace the frowning disinterest that we reflect upon one another with our busy schedules. That window at the post office is the home of Althea “Bunny” Preston. She is the heart of Philadelphia and all it will cost you is the price of a stamp.

Bunny has been working for the post office since 1969. A dedicated family person and devout Catholic, she is an active part of her community and a charitable force in her Mt. Airy neighborhood. A member of the Improved Benevolent Order of the Elks, her sisterhood (The Pride of Germantown) is active in creating the spirit of community with their call for Charity, Justice, and Sisterly Love. Bunny’s two children have taken her spirit as well. Her daughter is a social worker while her son is in the travel industry. They would be proud to know that Bunny’s influence reaches the heart of center city. She enjoys movies, the theater, reading, and Teddy Pendergrass. But mostly, this woman is about turning what some might consider the mundane into one of the more memorable parts of your Philadelphia experience…

More after the jump!

I had to ask Bunny how it was possible that I could stand at countless windows in this city after standing in massive lines and never experience the grace, the synergy, and the kinship that I might feel at Window 24 in Market East. When someone is a natural, they are almost embarrassed by such a question. “God’s been very good to me” is enough of an answer, I suppose. Her love of the city and its inhabitants tells some of the tale as well. But I didn’t dare tell her that her love of the spirit of Philadelphia is a twist because the spirit is polished and shined at her window every day. And she never skips a beat. Customer after customer is reminded of the fact that the civil interplay between human beings is the stuff of a great city. If I had my way, the Duck Tours, carriage horses, and Big Buses would all stop on 9th and Market and visit Window 24 just to know that the City of Sisterly Love has just the stuff that they are looking for. When Bunny gets her groove on, you’ll feel compelled to interact with people the same way. Realizing how important those moments can be is Mrs. Preston’s greatest skill. It requires a lot of energy. Her humble style and willingness to learn more about you than the dimensions of your parcel makes her a celebrity in my world. I know that you’ll want a piece of that as well. And don’t worry about holding up the line–it all happens while she is just doing her job.

Window 24 at the Market East post office is a destination. Go there. Find a way to ask that lady about her life. Have her regale you with stories of family, friends, and her lifelong dream of going to Europe. She finally did it. Go to Window 24 to talk to your grandmother long since passed, to get a verbal hug from a friend that you miss, to talk to a sister that you haven’t talked to in a while, or to get a glimpse into the heart of a person willing to take the chance to wear it on her sleeve. Go to Window 24 and figure out a little bit more about life than you knew before standing in that line. You can go to any Zagat reviewed restaurant or Broadway style show in town and feel great about it. It’ll cost ya. But if you go to Window 24 at that post office, all I can guarantee is a smile. For free.