Today is probably the last day we will ever use a traditional mailbox. Funny how little things like a change of mailboxes can rattle our world a bit.
Nearly forever, we have had the rural type mail service—where the box is away from the house either down a long driveway or, as in the case of our present condo lifestyle, in a group of mailboxes on a public lane. There’s something friendly about a mailbox, just as there is something wonderful about our small town Post Office located in what used to be a bungalow house.
Now, because there have been some package and letter thefts in our neighborhood, our community has gone to locked mailbox units. We have keys, and tomorrow we will begin to unlock our mail.
It’s a very odd world, and I am glad that I’m nearly 79 years old—having grown up in an era where no one I knew ever thought about locking mailboxes, or doors on houses when we were at home for that matter. I have never locked a door in the daytime, unless leaving our house—and even then I have often forgotten.
Naive? Perhaps! But that’s the way I’d prefer to live in this remote, almost rural section of our county. Maybe I’ll have to rethink our lifestyle, at this eleventh hour. It’s an odd world out there.
Margaret L. Been, ©2012
That’s sad, Margaret. I still have faith and leave my door not only unlockd but often wide open when I go to town. Can’t do it with the car tho. Too bad how a few bad acts have to effect so many peoples way of life.
I agree with you..There is just something special about mail boxes lined up on a rural street/ road. So far we use them here but have been asked if we wanted to join with others to purchase fancy lock and key one but it was way out of our price range..