Mailbox Mania

I appreciate it when people take mundane things like mailboxes and personalize them a bit. We always had a rather drab black mailbox at our house, the usual kind with a little flag to alert the postman we had outgoing mail. I always thought that when the little mailbox door was left open, it looked as if the mailbox was saying “feed me”, but that's just my imagination running away with me again. We were, in fact, not very imaginative when it came to our US postal service receptacle. In our travels, however, we've seen evidence that some people really take their mail delivery seriously. These are probably the people who are opposed to reducing home mail delivery to just five days a week in the US. They want to get their money's worth out of their mailboxes.  

There are some who express their local heritage or perhaps their occupation through their mailbox, like the Maine lobster trap mailbox we saw.

There are those who show their love for a particular sport like fishing, for instance, and have invested in a wide-mouth bass mailbox.

Some folks reflect their hobbies in their mailboxes … like trains.

We've seen some mailboxes that reflect their owners sense of humor. Rather elaborate display, I'd say.

Others are an example of someone's fine brickwork.

We enjoy the ones who emphasize their love of their pets or animals, like dogs.

… or how about swans?

… or even manatees? Really?

In rural areas where the postman only delivers to the end of the street, we'd many times see a line-up of disparate mailboxes. I think collectively, I'd call it a “maelstrom” of mailboxes.

Our least favorite were the poor boxes that were obviously wounded in service and left to fend for themselves all banged up and bandaged.

Of course, on the boat, we haven't ever had a mailbox. Hmmm .... think of all the junk mail we've missed in the past 13 years.