They came for our mailbox

We saw the truck that came to take it away. A smallish flatbed, which already had five or six blue mailboxes piled up in back. Only one guy, who seemed a little small and a little old for the task.

We were driving Miss T. to daycare, and me to work, so we couldn't stop to watch.

They gave us two weeks' notice, where "notice" was a big sticker over the pick-up schedule. I used to do bills twice a month, but that's dropped to just once in the post-baby era—as long as that's around the 18th of the month, it works well enough, at least if we pay credit cards online—and I only saw the notice because of one day, a week ago, when we were strong enough to walk the baby over, instead of driving her.

They do usage surveys, they say, and only take out the boxes that aren't being used. When Beaker called the post office, they told him that his was the only complaint about the removal of that particular box they'd received.

Our neighborhood is an old neighborhood. We have sidewalks and the houses are close together. In almost every household, at least one adult, and often two, works within walking distance—at the college, of course. Downtown is also walking distance—although it has no grocery or drugstore.

But even here, there's too little pedestrian traffic, and too few letters being sent, for the postal service to think it's worth their while to send a truck around once a day. Shame on us.

Comments

[nicole]

Oh god if they took my mailbox I would die. I admit, most of my life is e-ville, but I wait everyday for the news that brings me the Sierra Club, DNC, the stupid coupons, the occoasional check, the bills and, most importantly, the rejection letters. What would I do without the 2:30 drop-off. M

[Sarah]

I am so confused by this. Can the post office do that? Do you have to go the post office for your mail now? I didn't know that was even possible.

[Emma Jane]

No, it was the big blue old-fashioned mailbox down at the corner of our block, the kind one puts outgoing mail into.

They've now taken all the ones in residential neighborhoods of Granolaton, pretty much, and just left a few downtown.