Click to enlarge.
That's right, these strange and very utilitarian looking contraptions are the Israeli Post Office's official outgoing mail collection points, or in simpler terms - mailboxes. This particular pair is outside my local post office, just a few blocks from my home. One is for intracity mail, the other for everything else. The little white plaques on the front announce the daily pickup times for each. Due to security concerns these mailboxes accept letters and flat packages only (hence the lack of a large door). All parcels and larger packages need to be sent from inside the post office, where the clerks can choose to inspect them.
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As a small cultural aside, for some unknown reason (probably cost) my city, unlike most in Israel, does not have home mail delivery. We all have mailboxes, but the only things we get in them are junk mail, the local freebie papers, and the occasional gas or municipal water and tax bill. Instead, the city (or possibly the Post Office? I've never really thought about who pays and why) provides each resident with a free post office box , and deliver the mail to the box. Mine is in a separate bank of boxes just outside the main facility, with a box that is ridiculously low to the ground and half-blocked by a large puddle after each rainstorm, but that particular PO box goes with my home so no way to change it to one more easily accessible. I've gotten used to it over the years I suppose.
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Odd too that the Post Office's official colors are red and white instead of the blue and white of the Israeli flag, but it does make for a fitting Ruby Tuesday subject this way.
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34 comments:
I'm sure the Israeli Post Office had Ruby Tuesday in mind.
So do you check your mail less often than you would if it were right in your home?
Yup. I actually used to check it fairly often, but they've been doing construction at that intersection for what feels like forever now and it's made parking a real hassle. I could just walk the two blocks to check the mail, but somehow that's never very high on the priority list...
Have you heard they want to cut back one day here in the states? Hey, give me a PO box, I'll be happy :-)
We also have the mailbox banks in my city - ours is near the entrance to our neighborhood, next to the bottle recycling contraption and the one for newspapers.
shoshana
Nice red duo. Just wondering why two? One bigger would do, maybe it's just me. Anyways, happy RT and rest of the week!
I have learnt a few things. I had never heard of people not having personal mail delivery.
Our mailboxes are yellow.
Wow, you get the same kind of mail we get over here! The mailboxes in red are nice, they are all blue in the US and not nearly so eye-catching!
How interesting and peculiar. Funny how there are these national idiosyncracies.
Cheers
Canada Post mailboxes are red too. And no one who lives in my village has mail delivered to their homes. Until a few years ago we all had boxes inside the post office, but the village has grown so we now have groups of mailboxes in each neighbourhood. Hmmm. I'll have to do a post on that, Robin. What a good idea!
We have home delivery where I live, but I swear...our postal worker just comes whenever he feels like it AND drives up in our lawn, leaving big ruts. Being that we are out of the city limits, the mail delivery people use their own cars, which don't have the steering wheels on the other side of the car. It's a riot watching them leaning across the front seat in order to reach the mailboxes, but dang, I'm sick of the ruts in our front yard!
This is a nice photo of contrasts of tones, textures and light.
You're probably better off having your mail delivered to a secure box than to your home just in terms of identity theft prevention and so forth. I considered getting a PO Box for that very reason but the post office that serves my area is so far away and so hard to get to that I'd never check my mail if I did. We're talking about 3-4 miles here, not 2 blocks.
and I do find it odd that they'd choose a red and white color scheme, but perhaps they don't want to draw attention to the fact that it's a government building? I mean if you looked at it closely you'd know, but the casual observer might miss it. Then again, I guess the people they'd be most concerned about are anything but "casual".
We have home delivery but rural type mailboxes that kids drive by and bash with baseball bats for fun...
I always wondered why there wasn't home delivery but rather people had to retrieve their mail at the post office. Now I know!
It is interesting about the color of the mailboxes too - the logical color to me would have been blue... go figure!
Perfect red!
I wonder if they pick up the mail out of these boxes frequently. Ours here are much larger or maybe we use the mail more.
At least when you pick up your mail it is really mail - we have to sort through all the junk mail in with it. :)
They pick up several times a day.
Unfortunately, we get plenty of junk mail too. Not as much as in the US, but enough.
I love reading stuff like this!
So are you like me and insanely jealous of the Americans in teh movies that put their mail to go OUT in their letter box out front and the postman takes it?
Cause that is all kinds of awesome and would actually make me use the postal service instead of paying bills online and emailing.
Well probably not. But it is still awesome.
i'd prefer a free personal mail box, too! but in this part of the world, we have a postman who brings our mail to each door/gate. he knows everybody in my street.:D
Hi, Robin,
You've got the same red official mail boxes as we have in Norway.
Only place I've seen them otherwise is in Ireland. There they are green, of course.
We chose to pay for a mailbox in the local supermarket this fall. There have been several incidents of post theft/identity thefts in our town.
Foreign bands are raiding around, plundering private mailboxes, picking up mail from banks, social services etc and in that way getting hold of personal, privelegded information.
We did not want that to happen to us. The only thing we get in our mailbox is the newspaper.
I think the Israeli system is to secure all in criminal times. And you don't even have to pay for it. Good.
To make a greener world, all citizens can put on a yellow sticker stopping unwanted junk mail.
That works to a certain extent by us.
Have a happy, Ruby Tuesday.
From Felisol
That's weird that the govt gives out free P.O boxes for residents for their utility bills and such. Though it might not be convenient. I find it pretty good, helps prevent lost federal mail and late bill payments in a way.
Very nice Ruby Tuesday photo. Have you noticed that the US Postal Service has followed suit. Narrow slots only, take packages inside.
Happy RT.
Too bad about the inconvenient location of your PO box. I wonder what they would do if someone with a disability lived in the house - would they swap?
Happy Tuesday,
Tink *~*~*
NEW at My Mobile Adventures *~*~* :
The Empress Lilly, Downtown Disney
Low to the ground and next to a puddle? Fun!
:)
I am spoiled by having there be a mail drop off point in my office... to tell you the truth, I don't even know where the post office is in my city... Spoiled eh?
I'm sure they would switch Tink. The post office itself is accessible, and there are plenty of POB's you can reach via the ramp. Mine's just in a small overflow unit.
I like your red mailboxes!! ours in Spain are yellow. So are the German ones. I think it is fun to see the different ones in every country!
They remind me of british post boxes! Interesting info on the mail system - I love hearing tidbit on life in other places.
Jolie cuisine.
J'aime beaucoup le Kitchen aid!
A bientôt
Carole
The navy blue w/white mail boxes here had their 'doors' fixed so they dont open wide enough for packages ... now, like you, if its not a flat pack or letter we go to the post office .. or I take it to the office to send out ...
You mean you have to walk two blocks just to get your own personal mail?
Oh my!! Our mailboxes are red too, but I think ours are prettier. Ahum. Yes. They're prettier.
My RT has a red mail box in it too.
But mine is for sending the letters not receiving them...I understand the need for security where you are.
:)
These are also for sending Eaton. For receiving we have bog standard metal post office boxes.
I kind of like the mailboxes... they remind me of the red telephone booths in London. :-)
Love this picture! I haven't seen mail boxes like that in a while!
Pretty photo. It would really piss me off if my mailbox were submerged when I went to collect.
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