Self-Expression Through Mailboxes

Nearly every week-end, I travel to our cottage in Haliburton through southern Ontario farmland. This is some of the most beautiful farmland on earth. However, this post is not about scenery, it's about self-expression. One of my fascinations is how people express themselves through mundane objects. for example, if you walk along European residential streets where the houses are very close to the road, people are very careful to select objects to display on their window sills to express who they are and what they care about. In farm country, the houses are set far back from the road. The only venue for self-expression is the mailbox. Most people are content to use utilitarian mailboxes, but one in every ten chooses something that tells something about the family that lives down the lane. It may be a mailbox done in cow camouflage (holstein in this case), or it may be a mailbox that looks like a sausage dog. It doesn't matter what the subject of the mailbox, these tokens of self-expression show the lengths that people will go to tell their story.

Here are a selection of recent images of mailboxes. Enjoy!

The Holstein Mailbox

The Milk Can Mailbox

The Tractor Mailbox

Mr. Hum's House Outside a House

Mr. Sopha's Moose in the Woods

And...The Sausage Dog Mailbox