July 10, 2020

NOUVEAU MAIL BOXES NUANCED NEIGHBOURHOOD CHANGE

GRAVENHURST — Mail call.

Canada Post is converting a number of old community mail boxes around town.

The exact number is unknown — even to the local downtown post office here where a worker said: “We don’t know, we just get new keys in the mail” to distribute.

And — please recycle your old key.

But a trailer full of the nouveau art boxes — packed in cardboard boxes and delivered to my neighbourhood last week — with a couple of workers removing and replacing the ones that have been in place for about a couple of decades.

They replace seemingly good old mail compartments that mostly only suffered squeaky doors that could have benefited from some WD-40.

The new ones are much the same design and serve the same purpose — just smaller and with thinner, wider horizontal slots.

You can still pick up small parcels at the sites (they have a few more spaces for that) and post a letter.

But as with the 2020 pandemic revolution that continues to upset and challenge the work and living world Canada Post is struggling to compete with parcel delivery on the home front.

When was the last time you got a real “letter” or card?

They’re a novelty now.

Most of the time it’s just bills or flyers — and they don’t take up the same space.

Thus evolution — a new spin on an old Pony Express.

Oddly, though to me, is that there are only two more compartments and the same number of modules.

I guess they don’t expect the neighbourhood to grow with multiplexes.

So it won’t be too hard to find your box — even if they are personally in a slightly different location and are a little more difficult to access for some of us seniors.

It’s difficult to reach the lower mail boxes.

Now if they can make sure they’re cleared of snow in the winter.

Not a problem now, fortunately.

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