Hanging Mailboxes

The other day, John and I were out riding  the back roads of the very rural areas of Plain & Leavenworth, WA. The roads were paved, but quite narrow with just enough room for another vehicle to pass; along each side of the road was a  shallow ditch.

After a bit, we noticed that all of the mail boxes & newspaper holders were all either made of some very solid base/structure or hanging from some sort of contraption which extended quite far out into the  road. Now this looked quite odd to us city folk!

Finally, we seen a farmer in the process of getting mail from his box. Intrigued,  we just had to stop and satisfy our curiosity about the boxes.  From him we learned that during the winter months when the snow plows travel these roads “quote: “about 50mph” unquote” They are constantly hitting the boxes and sending them flying. The folks got tired of the damage caused from this action and took to putting the boxes on chains in hopes that the boxes would remain in their yards!  There seems to be a endless variety of arrangements for the mail box hangers.  Some were quite unique.

We also noticed that several of the ones that were hanging as a single or double box set were hanging topsy tursey. Since it had been weeks since the last snow plow roamed the roadsides we figured that  some one with not enough to do had came along and wacked them with something. There always are troublesome people up to mischief.