National Letter Writing Week: Part 5

“The mail is our daily dose of promise.”
     — Barbara Holland, Endangered Pleasures

A neighbor's collection of vintage mailboxes

Detail, vintage mailbox

Old, rusted mailbox

Mailboxes used to be like treasure chests, holding the promise of letters from loved ones.  These days the pleasures of mail are dwindling — too many bills, junk mail, solicitations.

I was reminded of the pleasures of mail while reading a new book by one of my favorite bloggers — Turkish Delight & Treasure Hunts by Jane Brocket.  The entire book is a delightful romp back to old childhood classics. As the title implies, Brocket shares ideas for recipes, such as Pippi Longstocking’s Swedish pancakes, and imaginative activities, such as playing Poohsticks.  One of the chapters is called “Run Your Own Post Office,” inspired by the old bird house/mailbox in the garden of the March girls in Little Women.

“The P.O. was a capital little institution, and flourished wonderfully, for nearly as many queer things passed through it as through the real office.  Tragedies and cravats, poetry and pickles, garden-seeds and long letters, music and ginger-bread, rubbers, invitations, scoldings and puppies.”
     —  Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

New book by Jane Brocket

 

I wonder what surprises my mailbox will hold today.