Ru·ral De·liv·er·y : ro͝orəl dəˈliv(ə)rē : [adjective] : Mail delivery of letters, packages or ordered goods to a mailbox in the countryside rather than the town.
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In 1896,
the United States Postal Service began RFD (Rural Free Delivery)
directly to outlying farms and homes.
Before the advent of RFD,
rural inhabitants had to pick up their mail themselves,
sometimes traveling to distant post offices
in small towns.
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These iconic shaped mail boxes from small to extra large are still seen,
some are new, some rusty, some painted, some bent,
but most all of them still serviceable.
Unfortunately, they are seen much less often than in days gone by
due to mail theft.
Prior to moving from urban Seattle,
we purchased and installed a locked, secure mailbox
because of the theft of mail from our own box at the bottom
of our thirty foot long driveway.
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Out here in east Lewis County,
it is still very rural.
There are many of these old style boxes dotting the shoulders
of the winding roads and lanes,
but increasingly they are being replaced
even out here,
where our small town of 1,100 people
is the third largest town in our county
of about 77,000 people.
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Times, things and seasons change,
don’t they?
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Blessings Always,
Most interesting “food for thought” read! Like most who’ve come to visit your site, “I’ll be back”!
You don’t see so many mail boxes in the UK as delivery is to the door. Where you see mailboxes it’s usually on some very remote hill farm or else where people have “free-range” dogs. Oddly I’ve seen a couple of boxes recently which had US MAIL stamped on them – someone must be selling replicas on line.
I grew up in a rural farming community and these mailboxes were what we had.There was significant outcry when the powers that be, wanted to change them to community boxes with a lock on each box.
We have a mailbox but it’s one of the plastic kind. The one that was like this in the picture finally gave up the ghost and tipped over.