When's the last time you saw a mailbox that wasn't sitting in front of a post office? I guess they have quietly gone the way of the phone booth. Like those jetliner storage lots in Arizona, there must be a giant field somewhere, full of blue retired mailboxes getting bleached by the sun or maybe they share a field with the phone booths.

We still have a few in our town. Out front of the bank (I don’t think it’s close enough even if there was a bomb in it to do a lot), down a few blocks outside the small branch post office, down the block from our local business, etc.
Phone booths are what I’ve noticed mia

We still have plenty around here. The cretins have figured out how to fish mail out of them; there's been a rash of checks being altered and cashed fraudulently.

I haven't seen a phone booth in ages, but there are plenty of free-standing mailboxes.

They are still out there, often hiding in the open but not easily seen while driving by.

This may help:

How to find a mail drop box

You’ll have to make a few selections. Under “Filter By” select “Collection Boxes” and under “Services” select “Blue Boxes” and under “Within” select “1” doesn’t usually give you much so try “10”.

You can search for other things, spend a minute or two looking around this function. For example you can find post offices if you’re not in your normal home area.

People want cheap and semi-efficient mail service.

Having a bunch of blue boxes all over creation to install, maintain, and pickup from isn't efficient unless it's used quite a bit.

Also, there are typically 'boxes' in most UPS / Mail stores.

Remember when the boxes were red white and blue?

I remember when they were Green!

Hey George43! I remember the green mailboxes too, and the mailman carried the mail in real leather mailbags. lol

quote:

Originally posted by George43:
I remember when they were Green!

I remember when kids would drop a lighted Cherry Bomb into a Mail box and then run like hell.

(I never did that, but I heard about it.)

quote:

Originally posted by clipper1:
Hey George43! I remember the green mailboxes too, and the mailman carried the mail in real leather mailbags. lol

Damm clipper, you must be as old as me!

There are plenty of green mailboxes but they’re used by the post office to supply a carriers walking route.

We still have the green ones here in my part of WV. I miss the red white and blue, reminds me of our Flag.

I was reading that there was a lot of o.d. green remaining from WWII, she went on mailboxes.

Boy, I’d of liked to have made that sale!

I have never seen a green mailbox, but remember the blue ones on practically every street corner when I was a kid.

quote:

I remember when kids would drop a lighted Cherry Bomb into a Mail box and then run like hell.

^^^^^
A postal worker once told me that kids used to put wads of chewed bubble gum in the boxes which made all the mail stick together. He had the task of separating the pieces of mail which took forever.

They are atill around. Back when the management to employee ratio hit an all time high of 8:1, after hovering around 22:1, it was deemed by the “clipboards and ties” and “bean counters” to eliminate front line employee positions. The mail collection routes of yore were eliminated. That was one of the final stages to retire from the post office. Even after eliminating about 75% of the blue mail collection boxes, the supervisor to employee ratio is still 8:1. Ask anyone who has worked in the Post Office why there are always budget problems, and most will answer the USPS is very top heavy with upper management.

The green boxes are relay boxes used for carriers in congested city areas to store mail on walking route. They basically walk from one box to the next to complete their route.

In a pinch, I know where to find multiple boxes next to each other.

Usually in either office or industrial parks.

Now that you mention it , it has been a while.

I do see a lot of UPS drop boxes curb side in some of the shopping areas in town.

We had two that were at our local Post Office that were targeted by thieves. They eventually got tired of fishing mail and stole one of the boxes completely. They had notices posted all over our Post Office notifying and alerting residents about the loss of mail.

They are building housing developments around here like crazy. I guess this is over loading the post office. The last plan has community mailboxes at the entrance. Pay 400k for a house and you have to get your mail like a commoner. Ridiculous.