9800 East Mary Drive

Last time, I posted one of the photos David Aber emailed on April 4th. Then I noticed that he'd sent more photos on April 1st. (Your contributions are much appreciated, David!) Let's start with the first of these two. For obvious reasons, he calls it “Rockbox.” He wrote: “I’ve included photos of all four sides of the mailbox because of all the odds and ends added to the pedestal.”

I've joked more than once about other “mailboxes that rock,” and I'd sure add this one to the list!

7750 East Seneca Street

David Aber sent this and several other mailbox photos on April 4th. He wrote:

The design on the Airplane mailbox is based on a Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk Fighter Plane. It was used in China by the American Volunteer Group (the Flying Tigers) in WWII. They were in China from 1941-42 and they downed 296 Japanese planes while losing only 14. Damned good shooting!

I wondered whether there might be other mailboxes like this one around the country, so I pasted the photo into Google Image Search. (Once you go to the page, click the camera icon and you can upload a photo to search for.) All Google showed me were photos of cars.

Amazing find! Thank you, David.

924 East Desert Parkway

April 9th, along the Heart of Tucson Art spring open studios tour, I found this artistic mailbox near (where else?) an artist's home.

2850 North Tyndall Avenue

This plain white mailbox could use some zap, for sure… the (much) larget-than-life jar of Tabasco sauce is a great addition. This is the third of three fun boxes that I found it its block on March 12th.

Mailbox(es) #400: Fish(es) out of water

After three and a half years of mailboxes, we're at the four hundredth:

I reeled it in March 12th at 2841 North Tyndall Avenue.

Before I showed you this “box,” I wondered if it was made commercially. First I did a Google image search of that exact image (click there to run it). I found lots of fish, but almost all of them were real. Next I did a Google image search for fish mailbox.

After looking at a few hundred fishboxes, I found a couple of green fish that looked a lot like this one. But they were in locations that seemed a lot closer to abundant fishing spots than Tucson. (Have you heard the saying: “You know you’re from Southern Arizona when… You no longer associate rivers or bridges with water”? :)

The second search above is fun to run: You'll see lots of fishy mailboxes.

With apologies for all of my puns over the years… Please stay tuned for the next 400 boxes.

2829 North Tyndall Avenue

I'm not sure exactly what's perched on the top back corner of this black mailbox. It looks like a bug, with bugged-out eyes, shielding its eyes with one hand while its other hand wraps around its belly. I'm even less sure what's hanging from its tongue: a door knocker?

Hmmm…: this was March 12th.

5221 East 3rd Street

Here's a black box with handpainted flowers and orange sripes around the side of its door:

David Aber was driving through the neighborhood on the morning of March 10th when he spotted it.

612 North Rook Avenue

So many mailboxes include quail that I've thought about adding them to our boring mailboxes list. But, like a lot mailboxes with other critters and plants, each “quailbox” (as David Aber dubbed this one) is generally artistic and pretty unique.

So, bring on the quail! These are cut from a rusty sheet of metal that also includes a prickly-pear cactus and what looks like tree branches.

The mailbox itself has a sort-of copper patina finish with splotches of gold. (I made that photo from the single original photo David sent me on March 10th.)

5637 East 4th Street

Some mailboxes as clever as this barn-shaped box (red sides with white stripes over the door and a black shingled roof) are commercially-made. We tend to avoid those and lean toward one-of-a-kind mailboxes. This one — which David Aber found on March 10th — looks to me like it's made of wood and is just a bit irregular.

(Who knows? It's fun, anyway.)

3250 East 27th Street

Here's a large metal mailbox, painted lavender, with flowers on top and around its brown post.

I couldn't possibly miss it as I drove by on March 5th.

3919 East Cooper Street

Bursting out of the middle of a spectacular iron sunflower is this rust-finished mailbox…

David Aber, who took the photo, calls it “Sunflowerbox.” Seems like a good name to me! He sent his photo on March 28th. Appreciated as always, Dave…

9066 East 20th Street

On top of curvy pipe sections is this rust-finished mailbox:

David Aber (who also contributes to the Tucson Murals Project blog) found it on March 17th.

1521 South Bristol Avenue

Here's another gorgeously-painted mailbox: white, covered with gardens full of clusters of flowers:

I took the photo on January 31 — the same day I was photographing a nearby spot for the Tucson's Pocket Parks blog. To see the tiny “park” and a link to the little mural near it, scroll down that page or click on Your own parklet.

3349 East Bellevue Street

This gorgeous mailbox is covered with hand-painted scenes of quail in the desert...

I waddled by (do quail waddle? :) on November 20th.

2809 East Helen Street

This white mailbox has hand-painted poppies:

I rode by and stopped ("I'm so sleepy, I can't ride anymore. Oh please, I have to rest for just a minute, Toto, where's Toto? Yawn..." :) on November 20th.

By the way, the blog has been quiet due to a family emergency. Things are better now, and I'm aiming to keep the blog online from today on!

2607 East Helen Street

This white mailbox nas a red-and-blue design between the posts.

Natural light replaces the white parts of this American flag.

Ted Morrison made it. I found it on November 20, 2016.

2234 East Helen Street

It looks like someone gets (or can get) a lot of mail! This tall rust-finished mailbox has a door at the top of the front side and plenty of room underneath.

I used my wide-angle lens to catch it all (actually, it's not that tall :) on November 20, 2015.

2222 East Helen Street

There's already at least one blog entry saying “this box rocks!” so I'll spare you… :)

This square black mailbox is in a cage-type post filed with rocks. I (rock & :) rolled by it on November 20, 2015.

2769 North Martin Avenue

A white mailbox with multicolored design that I found on November 20th, 2015:

I used my favorite free photo editor, GIMP, to brighten the flag.

Here's the other side. For some reason, I didn't catch all of it:

5649 East 3rd Street

Quail and wildflowers cover this mailbox with a stuccoed post. David Aber found it. He wrote about it — and the previous two mailboxes:

“All three photos were taken on Feb. 16, 2016 and all three mailboxes were found in my usual way......by accident. In this case, I was looking for yards with lots of wildflowers. There’s quite a few homeowners (especially in midtown) that buy packaged wildflower seed from their local nursery and scatter it in their front yards. Right now it’s all in bloom. Looking for flowers in front yards, I could hardly miss the mailboxes.”

Thanks, as always, Dave!

6129 East Rosewood Street

This mailbox “post” is showing some wear (and is the box itself tagged?). I think it's the biggest post I've seen. Actually, David Aber found it (on February 16th).

8131 East Malvern Street

David Aber spotted this amazing creation on February 16. More boxes from him in the next few entries…

Computer coming back to life

I'm on the road with my laptop computer. It went into a bizarre cycle of trying to fix itself, giving up, trying to fix again, and…. I finally gave up, wiped out my programs (a.k.a. "apps"), and re-installed Windows.

So the blog may not be back to normal until I'm home early next week. Sorry about that.

1327 South 8th Avenue

David Aber sent these photos. (Thanks!) He wrote: “Here’s a mailbox I found on S. 8th Ave. that is in the shape of a cathedral. It’s between 23rd and 24th Streets. It’s on an empty lot, but Google Earth says the address is 1327 S. 8th Ave. This meshes with the numbers of the surrounding homes.”

710 South 7th Avenue

David Aber found this mailbox with a house-shaped top and a huge “post” underneath. (These folks can get a lot of mail!)

729 South Osborne Avenue

David Aber emailed this photo of a rust-finished mailbox in a Southwestern style… on top of a post that matches the wall behind it:

Thanks, David.

5140 East Rosewood Street

David Aber sent photos of this mailbox — and matching planters:

David is a regular contributor to the Tucson Murals Project blog, but this is his first mailbox. Thank you, Dave!

337 West Blacklidge Drive

On November 20th, I rode by this plain-vanilla mailbox with colorful tile on its post and underneath:

The other side of the post is about the same:

2920 North Estrella Avenue

You can't miss this red and white mailbox with numbers carved alongside the post!

I was blinded :) as I rode by on November 20, so I parked my bike and snapped these shots.

2738 North Estrella Avenue

Riding my bike by on November 20th, I couldn't miss this mailbox on a peace sign-shaped “post”:

That side of the box is painted with bright-colored flowers, but the flowers on the other side have faded:

Update (August 12, 2016): I just looked at this entry again and realized that the “post” isn't quite a peace sign. (Click to see a Google Image search for peace sign.) If you have an idea what this carving is, please leave a comment below. (You can remain anonymous.)

2041 East Waverly Street

When I drove by this home on the route of the fall artists’ open studios tour November 14th, the scene looked as if an artist lives here:

Though I saw the house number on the red circle, I didn't notice the number on the curb:

The pole was painted in same style as the box and curb:

Thanks, homeowner, for this fun scene!

2609 East Mabel Street

Along my route on the fall 2015 artists’ open studios tour, one artist had this mailbox out front with a tour sign hung over it:

Those are steel cholla on top — and a flag shaped like a cowboy with chaps to keep the cholla away:

4449 East 10th Street

It looks like the Mann Family have roots in Montana and Arizona:

Thanks, Brady and Celia...

I snapped their mailbox photo on November 7th.

708 North Desert Avenue

Here's the fourth of four mailboxes in the three blocks of this little street:

I've read that Sesame Street characters have been updated by HBO in 2016, so this photo from February 3 might not show the latest faces.