Mailboxes

E-mail may be efficient, both nothing beats the old-fashioned version of "You've Got Mail!"

 As a child, my siblings and I would vie for the right to get the mail.  My mother finally set up a rotating schedule to reduce our squabbles.  When it was my turn, I would sit on the front steps waiting for the rural mail carrier's car to come down the road.  I never stood next to the mailbox, because he would just hand me the mail instead of placing it in the box.  I treasured the walk down the drive, anticipating what might be inside the box.  Nothing beat the excitement of tugging the door down and peering inside.  Even when I was sure that I had removed all the mail, I would stretch my arm to reach inside and check for more.  I loved getting letters, but the thrill of retrieving mail from the box went far beyond the contents.

In our area, everyone’s mail was delivered to a black box on a post.  Even the more decorative variations on vertical mailboxes weren’t seen in our rural setting until many years later.  The allure of mail carried into my adulthood.  Even when it only held bills, I looked forward to returning home from work to collecting my mail from a row of apartment mailboxes.  Even the bank of commercial mailboxes in my employer’s mailroom had a certain allure and I continued to check my box daily, even when e-mail had replaced most paper deliveries.

Nowadays, my granddaughter collects the mail from a brick-column box at the end of the drive.  As an only child, she gets to collect it every day.  I wonder if she realizes how lucky she is.