[Bunno Smurf]

I was watching Elmo's World this morning with Eloise and it was all about mail today.

I noticed the blue postbox (American) and it started me thinking what colour are the post boxes in other countries as ours are red. We also have yellow "express" post boxes. Also the kid on the show put a letter in his own letterbox and put the flag thing up to post it. Does this actually happen?? We have to put ours in the postbox for it to get posted.


So what colour are the post boxes in your country and how do you post your letters and stuff?

[Fram]

Postboxes are red, and we have to put our letters in them to get anything posted (or we can deliver them in the post office of course). We don't even have a 'falg' on our receiving end, we have to check

[Guest]

They are red here too, and no flags!

[hfos]

Red..!

[XoioX2000]

Hi Linda,

They are yellow in France... and as Karen said Red here.

When the letter arrive, they are actually delivered through the door, so we don't actually have a box sitting outside on the drive with a flag on it.
Some people with big posh drives and a house far away from the gate do have a box by the gate, but it's not the norm.

In any case to post the letters we have to physically bring them to a communal box which gets emptied once or twice a day.

[Bunno Smurf]

oh nice pic of the mailbox, Robin. That is certainly different to ours. I will try and take a pic of one of ours tomorrow. Its pretty similar to the American ones though ours are taller from what I remember of the American ones in the movies.

We don't have the little flags here either...we have to walk the whole 5m to the letterbox and check for ourselves also. We don't have them in our doors. I have a post office box too so my packages and stuff go there.

[Tamtam]

Our community mail boxes are red, the post office boxes are grey (silver) and I think most people here in the city would get home delivery and the boxes range from homemade wooden to store bought metal or plastic. I have seen a few homemade in the shape of trains, replicas of the owners houses etc. Kind of cute. I think only people who live far from town use the flag thingy for the postman to take their mail. We don't use it here as there is a community box just down the street and post office at the grocery store.

[eggie smurf]

Also the kid on the show put a letter in his own letterbox and put the flag thing up to post it. Does this actually happen??

Yes, it does -- very convenient!!

And the first three images hereare of our blue mailboxes.

[SA Smurfette]

Also the kid on the show put a letter in his own letterbox and put the flag thing up to post it. Does this actually happen??

Yes, it does -- very convenient!!

Wow if we did that it wouldn't leave our mailbox.
Our community mailboxes are usually along main roads or at shopping centres. So we need to either put our mail in there or go to the local post office to send mail.

Raelene

[Bunno Smurf]

Heres a link to a pic of both the yellow and the red ones:

http://www.ekasecurity.com.au/post.jpg

and heres some others - UK ones I think??

http://images.google.com.au/images?q=post+boxes&hl=en


After I posted about taking a pic of the post box I was wondering if they might think it was a bit suspicious someone taking a photo of a post box outside a shopping centre

I was listening to a podcast the other day about a guy in the UK I think who was wearing an "unseasonal jacket" in the underground tube station and calling someone on his mobile. He was arrested and the whole tube shut down cos they thought it was a terrorist attack. He was eventually cleared of not being a terrorist but they charged him with "deliberately" trying to look like a terrorist, although he says he wasn't. So the moral of the story is make sure you're dressed appropriately for the weather!

[Guest]

Yes they are UK ones.

[XoioX2000]

Here is a French one...

You can tell this picture if from a letter box somewhere in the county "Charentes-Maritime": On the left you post the letters going to somewhere in that county and on the right the "all destinations" (inc. international).

Cheers,

David

[Syd Smurf]

Ah...just like the one Mr Bean got stuck in

[DrunkSmurf]

Eggie and Tamtam already gave good descriptions of stuff in North America. Some newer subdivisions in my area have large steel communal boxes (each house has its own compartment). But, the normal thing here is a privately owned plastic or steel barnshaped-box on a wooden post in the front lawn--you raise the flag to tell the postman you have something to send.

Around the end of the Highschool season, kids like to race by in cars and whack the mail boxes with baseball bats.

Actually, our lawn boxes aren't secure at all--we have a lot of faith in the honor system here (and it's a federal crime to steal mail). But, sometimes, I've heard, people will snatch utility and credit card bills from mailboxes then doctor up the cheque.

One of my lunatic friends when I was in highschool shoved a pipebomb into an unlocked compartment at a community mailbox and blew it to hell. He got to meet a lot of FBI agents in dark sunglasses...

[Syd Smurf]

When it comes to delinquent youths accidentally removing letter boxes after a few ......well, I'm probably not one to judge ......I think it's a mail thing

However I am all grown up now and no longer do silly stuff......well I don't do that type of silly stuff. I've even thrown out all of my giant Cornetto stands that were taller than me.....I used to have them all lined up in my bedroom due to careless shopkeepers.....I guess

[JT]

Why others have beautiful Postboxes while we have this "beauty" here in Finland

JT

[Fram]

Hey, it looks like an iPod!

[Yonna]

I don't think that was the meaning...

[SMURFYSTEVE1]

Hey, it looks like an iPod!

With an ipod that big wow i bet it will hold millions of songs. But bugger trying to cary that around!!!
Smurfy regards, Steve.

[XoioX2000]

Very good!

It does look like an iPod!!!!

... not a mini one though!!!!