YOU'VE GOT MAIL: UNIQUE MAILBOXES REFLECT PERSONALITY OF AREA HOMEOWNERS

A rockwork pedestal keeps this mailbox secure.

A mailbox that resembles a pig hints at the owner's livelihood.

This mailbox resembles the owner's house.

Only a few years ago, people went to great trouble to find a mailbox that signified their career, sense of humor or favorite hobbies.

The mailbox's presence at the front of the home or as a free-standing object in the front yard makes it an obvious focal point of any home. In the past, it wasn't unusual to see rural homes that used old plows to anchor their boxes or city homes that featured boxes well decorated with dolls or teddy bears or even family pictures.

Today, however, unique mailboxes are a thing of the past, largely because of government regulations and youthful pranks, said Cape Girardeau Postmaster Mike Keefe. Postal and highway department officials now want standard pole-and-box formats rather than stylistic mailboxes because of safety concerns, he said.

"There are fewer and fewer unique boxes around anywhere," said Keefe. "Now they want boxes that are supported by basic poles so that if someone were to run off the road, they'd hit the pole and it would break instead of hitting something that could stop the car and kill the driver."

Some say they choose standard mailboxes because unique ones are targets of pranksters bent on destruction. People don't want to spend money and go to the effort of creating something different or eye-catching, only for it to be destroyed when no one is looking.

There are some unique mailboxes still standing around Cape Girardeau. But the owners were reluctant to discuss their boxes for fear someone on a weekend spree might destroy them.

Keefe said mailboxes at Notre Dame Regional High School and Southeast Missouri State University are made with reinforced steel. They were designed by local steel companies to resist damage by vandals, he said.

"I've already had to replace mine once, and I don't want to have to keep doing that over and over," said the owner of one unique mailbox. "I don't know why they think it's fun to take something I obviously care about and destroy it for no reason."