Don't Forget to Put the Flag Up!!!

Out here in the country every house has a mailbox. No... Not one of those tiny boxes on the wall by the door... Not one of those metal boxes in the post office with hundreds of others. A real mailbox, usually with a separate compartment for the daily newspaper, sits at the end of every driveway. Here's the thing though. Those mailboxes sometimes become a status symbol of sorts, or a decorative feature at the head of the driveway. They get decorated for the holidays, especially Christmas, and sometimes even "bloom" in the warmer months. The mailbox is your first indication of the type of folks that live in that house.

A sprawling brick house with lavish landscaping might decide to brick in their mailbox, making it look like a mini Fort Knox. A farmer might have a mailbox in the shape of a John Deere tractor, complete with the green and yellow colors that are so famous with the brand. A fisherman might have one shaped like a huge large mouth bass (the door is literally inside the fish's mouth). And a young couple, just starting life together, might have the cheapest one Lowe's sells, on a skinny metal pole, very non-descript, lacking the personality sure to show up in the coming years. There are no Homeowners Associations out here, demanding all mailboxes look the same. The mailbox becomes a symbol of those who live there.

You can tell a lot about the lives of the folks around here by their mailboxes, too. Do they have one of those plastic bulky looking ones? Chances are, they have lost a few mailboxes in their life to drive-by hooligans with a baseball bat (illegal, by the way), or a farm implement on a tractor that stuck out too far to the side, or a roadscraper in the winter time. Those things are made to break apart when they get hit to limit the destruction. Is it mounted on a thick metal pole or a 4x4, or a store-bought pole of some sort? Is it plain or decorative? Does it have a mini flower garden planted around it? All these things mean something to the folks who live there.

Photo by Pat Bailey

And then there are those folks that look at their mailbox as their own special spot to place a sculpture representing their own brand of uniqueness. Some go the humor route while others seemingly use random parts found around the old farm. Lots seem to love wagon wheels and bicycle wheels. Others create sculptures of horses or dragons or even knights in armor which stand at attention at driveway's end in an eternal watch. 

<<<<<--  And then there's this guy, with the pot-bellied stove for a mailbox.  

And always..... ALWAYS...... there is the inevitable cluster of mailboxes here and there, usually at the end of some winding gravel road. One box for each house, often odd sizes and heights, some different colors from the others, and always at different angles.... reminding me somehow of a field of mechanical wildflowers on the side of the road.

Next time you're driving through the rural countryside, take time to notice the mailboxes. You never know what will peek out of the next curve in the road....  Who knows, it may be better than The Worlds Biggest Ball of String....