We are very close to our beginnings, here, in this part of Nova Scotia. The village names along Digby Neck could just as well be stamped with the family name of those who opened the earth and piled the stones to create the first permanent dwelling on that particular spot. I drive down this narrow and lush peninsula and know that there are still Tidds who live in Tiddville; Mink Cove could just as well be called Gidney Hollow, for tho' many descendants moved away and sold the original land grants from the British government of the time, many have also returned to reclaim their heritage and place of prominence in this community.
All the old names are here: Denton, Raymond, Titus and more. Perhaps you would see your ancestral (or present) surname here- on a modest rural mailbox that could tell you a thousand stories. If you travelled with the rural postie who drives -still- from mailbox to mailbox everyday, opening its maw and filling it with the concerns of today, perhaps if you listened very closely you would hear on the outrush of breath from that opening the concerns yesterday, of yesteryear, of each dwelling occupant before: the bills for purchases, the taxes, obits and marriage notices, government prescriptions and proscriptions, and invitations to attend one event or another.
The rural mailbox is not just an "incoming" receptacle. The responses to each life's trudge and each person's grudge were placed in the same embracing space to go *out*, along with the joys, remembrances and the social "touch" needed then and needed now, with friends, relatives, lovers and acquaintances who lived and live down the road, up the Neck, or simply "away".
Both in and out communications are announced with an upright crimson flag attached to the side of the mailbox, which remained prone, as many of us do, when silent.
Our rural mailboxes will likely become quaint technology of the past, despite their dressings up and dressings down, the ingenious shapes and colourful drapes and safer (according to Canada Post) placements roadside.
Come see them soon! We're not yet just numbers on a highway. Our mailboxes have names that go back sometimes 200 years. My mailbox says so.
Kathleen Gidney
All the old names are here: Denton, Raymond, Titus and more. Perhaps you would see your ancestral (or present) surname here- on a modest rural mailbox that could tell you a thousand stories. If you travelled with the rural postie who drives -still- from mailbox to mailbox everyday, opening its maw and filling it with the concerns of today, perhaps if you listened very closely you would hear on the outrush of breath from that opening the concerns yesterday, of yesteryear, of each dwelling occupant before: the bills for purchases, the taxes, obits and marriage notices, government prescriptions and proscriptions, and invitations to attend one event or another.
The rural mailbox is not just an "incoming" receptacle. The responses to each life's trudge and each person's grudge were placed in the same embracing space to go *out*, along with the joys, remembrances and the social "touch" needed then and needed now, with friends, relatives, lovers and acquaintances who lived and live down the road, up the Neck, or simply "away".
Both in and out communications are announced with an upright crimson flag attached to the side of the mailbox, which remained prone, as many of us do, when silent.
Our rural mailboxes will likely become quaint technology of the past, despite their dressings up and dressings down, the ingenious shapes and colourful drapes and safer (according to Canada Post) placements roadside.
Come see them soon! We're not yet just numbers on a highway. Our mailboxes have names that go back sometimes 200 years. My mailbox says so.
Kathleen Gidney
Posts
1 comment:
The names and the designs and the shapes are almost as colourful as the people who anxiously await the mailman's arrival! There is a story in each and every one! And your appreciation of the "simple" things in life as the most profound is delightful.
Thanks Kathleen. You made me smile, reflect and get a little nostaglic myself. KEEP BLOGGING!
Post a Comment