I wasn't going to share my mailbox story, but why not?
When we first moved down here to Tennessee many moons ago (I will not age
myself), we had a very simple unintrusive small mailbox at the end of our
long driveway.
One morning I go down to check the mail and some smart allack had taken the
front of the mailbox and pushed it up and backwards so it was better as a
water collector than a mail receptacle. Ok, I'm young, stupid, and ticked,
I can fix these people. I take the mailbox off of its 1 x 6 base and
proceed to nail in, oh I don't know, maybe 50 8d nails. I figure if they
want to lift my mailbox off, they will have pain inflicted on them in their
efforts.
A week or so goes by and one evening I here language that I haven't heard
since I was in the Air Force. I go down to see what the racket is about and
notice blood and what appears to be skin on the front nails that are
protuding from the mailbox base. I am overjoyed that I outsmarted the
little vandals!
My joy was short lived, as the next night they came through with a baseball
bat and pummeled my poor little mailbox.
Ok, I can deal with this too. I sink a 6" galvanized post 3' in the ground
and fill it with concrete and stick 3 J-bolts in the top of the post. I gave
my husband specific instructions to build me a cage for the new mailbox. He
works out at the air base, and they had the proper tools to build this
contraption. Remember, we were young, stupid and didn't have good tools at
this point. He built a cage out of 1/2" rebar that fit nicely into a larger
mailbox I purchased. Being a guy, he decided to add a metal skin to the
outside of the rebar, just because. He brings this home to me and I mount
it inside the mailbox. I dub the mail box
"SAM - Suburban Assault Mailbox".
I await anxiously for the little heathens to attack the new mailbox. It was
only a week in waiting, and they must have had a curfew, because at around
7pm one evening we hear "SMACK", then a lot more language that is usually
heard in the Navy. We go down to check the damage. SAM has an itty bitty
dent in his side, but I am sure the kid who smacked it is in pain. Success!
SAM still stands to this day, protecting our mail from the local kids.
Patricia
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