Technology changes like the wind.
Mailboxes, not so much.
The only thing these two items have in common is that they’re vital sources of communication. That’s it.
It seems like Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is introducing a new high-tech gadget every week. But the mailbox has looked the same, offering the same service since, uh, just about the beginning of time.
So imagine my surprise when I noticed a puzzled young man eyeing the familiar blue box located at the corner of Main and Davis streets last week.
As I walked toward my vehicle parked near the Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office, I heard him mumble, “How in the heck do you get this thing open?”
Cautiously intrigued, I paused and looked back and wondered if he was for real.
He was.
I watched curiously as the sinewy young man circled the highly identifiable mail receptacle. A few seconds later, I approached him and asked if it might have been sealed shut or something.
You never know in this struggling economy.
Anyway, I reached out and gently pulled the lever and — ta-da! — it opened just like always.
Then, it was my turn to shoot him a look of confusion.
To my knowledge, the standard mailbox has looked somewhat the same since it was patented in the United States during the mid-1850s.
Compare that with learning how to text, which takes skill to figure out how many times to press the numbers on a cell phone keypad just to spell “LOL.”
By the way, when I returned to the office that day to share what I had just witnessed, the first question from my co-workers was, “What’s his age?”
I’d say he looked about 20 years old, and I guess someone had summoned him to mail a letter or bill. Imagine that.
But that’s no excuse. I’m sure he’s seen a mailbox somewhere before — whether it was on a school trip, running errands with his parents, on any street corner (rural or urban), television, Internet or in a book.
Or just maybe — and this is a stretch — he’s heard of NBA power forward Karl “The Mailman” Malone and figured it out from there.
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