Monday, December 31, 2012

Christmas Cactus: 2355 East Parkway Terrace

The 2012 holiday season is almost over. I thought I'd wrap it up here with one last photo. This mailbox has accomplices: a gang of Santas:


Happy 2013!

Sunday, December 30, 2012

3362 East 23rd Street


Between the two posts are (I don't know cattle breeds; if you do, please post a comment below), horseshoes, a rodeo rider, and a couple of saguaro cactus.

I took the photo on May 6th.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

3312 East 23rd Street

Lots of Tucson homeowners get the idea of mounting their mailboxes on a saguaro. I posted photos of several on December 23rd. I'll try to resist posting all of the saguaro-mailhox scenes I find in the next year. Here's one I couldn't resist posting. It has a yellow cast that wasn't easy to remove, but you'll get the idea anyway:


I took the photo on May 6th.

Friday, December 28, 2012

150 South Westmoreland Avenue


Some mailboxes have flowers, but this mailbox has one REALLY BIG flower — larger than the (plain black) mailbox itself.

According to Google Maps, this is A Neighborhood Early Learning Center. I rolled by on April 22.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

2303 East Adams Street

A very fun mailbox with assorted reptiles, lightning bolts, and an extra-large flag:


I slithered by on April 6th.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

2041 East Adams Street

Here's a white mailbox with hand-painted flowers.


(There are lots of similar mailboxes around town. Maybe some — including this one? — are mass-produced. You're watching me learn what's out there as I take more photos and post them here. I'll try to be sure not to post duplicates.)

I snapped this on April 6th.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas from 2525 South Edmondson Avenue


This mailbox, nestled in a post made of bricks painted white, is wrapped with Christmas lights and garland. (Too bad I wasn't here at night!) I rode by on December 23.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Happy Holidays from 2435 South Sawtelle Avenue


This white mailbox with sky-blue flowers is decorated by some holiday ribbon and a bell.

I took the photo yesterday.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Saguaro You Today?

That (the title of this post) is a well-known bumper sticker phrase (here's a story of its creation)... so it fits these four mailboxes with saguaro-shaped posts:


4339 E. Monte Vista
October 11, 2012
2603 E. Drachman
October 16, 2012
2606 E. Drachman
October 16
2601 E. Drachman
October 16

(The last three are next to each other, so there's only one map link. Also... that last mailbox could be a young saguaro, a barrel cactus, or whatever...)

Artistic mailboxes seem to come in groups. On (at least) one street (northeast of Speedway & Craycroft — I'll show it in a future post), the same artisan made a whole series of mailboxes in similar styles. There are lots of saguaro mailboxes around Tucson... I'll try to keep some variety here!

If you don't live in southern Arizona, FYI: We pronounce saguaro as, roughly, "so are oh."

Saturday, December 22, 2012

3338 East Adams Street

A mailbox sprouting from a steel prickly pear cactus (with a bent pole... was this an accident?):


I was there on April 6th.

Friday, December 21, 2012

Thursday, December 20, 2012

6511 North Swan Road

Flying mailbox with wings, a head and tail, and a tree limb as the post:

I flew by on February 10, 2012.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

6515 N. Catalina Avenue

Here's a square-fronted brass(?) mailbox, in a stuccoed "post," with a saguaro flag. (I said I wouldn't post many mailboxes with cute flags like this, but this is one of the exceptions. :)


I took the photo on February 10, 2012. (By the way, if the Location link below doesn't work, try this one.)

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

3241 East 26th Street

A calf, a pig(let?), and a puppy with a letter:

I took this pair of photos on the rainy November 13, 2011.

Monday, December 17, 2012

3322 East 24th Street

This mailbox has a roadrunner flag on it and what looks to me like a stylized frog underneath:


I took the photo on November 13, 2011. (That was around the time I got the idea for this blog. I've been collecting photos since then.)

By the way, Tucson has lots of plain-looking mailboxes with a flag in the shape of an animal, a saguaro, etc. I won't show all of them.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

2040 East Hampton Street

You can see a sunny mailbox on Hampton by clicking there. That'll take you to the March 31 post from the Tucson Murals Project blog.

(I take photos of murals for that blog and photos of mailboxes for this one. It works out!)

Saturday, December 15, 2012

2237 East 20th Street

Here's a unique mailbox. It's the circle in the middle — above the house number. The black curved and pointed metal around the mailbox made it interesting:


I took this on December 10th.

Friday, December 14, 2012

Three in the 2400 block of East Beverly Drive

These neighbors have the same taste in mailboxes: between the two supporting posts are animals, plants, a crescent moon, a cloud with a lightning bolt, and more:

243124372432

I snapped these photos on December 10th.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

The other side of 2308 East Beverly Drive

A horse-drawn US Mail wagon:

Yesterday's post showed the west side of this mailbox. This is the east side.

I found this on December 10th.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

What's a mailbox?

Welcome to the new Tucson Mailbox Art blog! As I was setting this up, I wrote an email to a friend in France and started to mention the blog. I realized that not all countries are the same as the US — and even some people who live in the US don't have the type of mailbox I'm describing — so she (and you) might not know what a “mailbox” looks like or how it works.

Here’s what I wrote to her:

“I don't remember whether homes I've seen in France have mailboxes at the curb (the British write kerb) on the street in front? They’ve been a fixture of US homes for decades. (Many city homes used to have a mailbox attached to the front wall, or a slot that let mail drop through the wall. For efficiency, the U.S. Postal Service changed that when I was a child. Also, apartment buildings often have central mailboxes that are different than these.) Now — in Tucson, at least — the letter carrier drives a small truck along the street, stopping at each mailbox to leave that day’s mail (or, as Brits say, the post). The mailbox also has a flag, on a hinge, that the home’s owner (or occupant) can raise as a signal that there’s mail waiting for the letter carrier to pick up.”

The mailbox above is at 2308 E. Beverly Drive. (Click the "Location" box below to see a map.) I'll show the other side of the mailbox in tomorrow's post. I took the photos on December 10th.