Does anyone remember these guys?Of course I’m too young to remember…well, maybe not.
To be honest, I don’t know if I remember them or if I just remember being told about them. Like some mythical creature, the milkman is now extinct. When I was little, there was a compartment in the outside wall of our house, beside the front door. It had a little door on either side. There were all manner of games played with my little sister that involved that tiny cupboard, most of which landed me in trouble. Especially the time I got my little sister stuck in it. But, you see, we were told there was a time you could open that wee door and milk would magically appear! What child wouldn’t try to put their little sister through it to see what would happen?
Not this one, but, can’t you picture me pushing my kid sister’s butt through that little door?
OK. Let’s move on. Do you recognize this guy?
Source: Our Times
This is a letter carrier. Pre-political-correctness we called them “Mail Men”. They delivered our mail. If you lived in town they brought the mail right up to your house. If you lived in the country they dropped it in a box at the end of your driveway. These days when you hear, “You’ve got mail”, it usually means it’s in the inbox of your computer. Shortly before Christmas, Canada Post announced that they would be ending door-to-door delivery. Now, I know most of my American friends are sitting there with their jaws on the floor trying to understand how their neighbours to the north could possibly be making such a rash decision. Believe me when I tell you, the Canadian public is wondering the same thing. Our children or grandchildren will never know the delight of receiving their first piece of mail right out of the mailbox. They will never experience running to the door every time they hear the postman to see if their “secret decoder ring” or today’s equivalent, a DVD, that they saved up cereal box tops for months has arrived. There is no one in Canada more affected by this than He-Who. It’s not that he sends away for stuff. It’s not even that we get a lot of mail. Even our bills are paperless these days. He-Who has an obsession about the mail. I don’t claim to understand it but I know it’s going to be a problem.
This is our mailbox. It’s nothing special…it came with the house.
Yes, our mailbox could use a little work.
He-Who checks that mailbox constantly. He checks it first thing in the morning and will check it every time he goes out for “some fresh air”. He checks it when he leaves the house and he checks it when he comes home. When the mail comes he brings it in. Most of it is usually flyers and junk mail. Even after he has already brought the mail in he will continue to check the box. He often chats with the mailman when he comes but he will continue checking that box long after he is gone. I don’t know if he thinks that new mail will magically appear or if he is certain he must have missed something. I do know he has done this as long as I have known him, everywhere we have lived. Now, as we get closer to the time when we will have to go around the corner and down the street to some community mail centre, I have concerns.
photo credit: Teddy Kwok via photopin cc
The mail person we once knew will become some mythical person that once existed. A magical being who left some special written material at our door. In the future, someone will tell stories about “the mailman” to our grandchildren’s children. What I am really worried about though, is what He-Who will do when he checks the mailbox and finds out it is now a planter.
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