They've become extensions of our jobs,
our hobbies, our lives and loves
Photos By Dennis Oda
Story By Jerry Tune
Star-Bulletin
Publicist Elissa Josephsohn gets her mail dropped in a cat that crouches calmly on the picket fence outside her Honolulu hillside home. Mail carriers open the box at the cat's face and drop letters inside.
Like Josephsohn, more and more isle resident are putting personality and practicality together in their choice of mail boxes.
They take many forms: yellow fire trucks in Manoa, a boy fishing in Hawaii Kai, and a cow in Maunawili.
Aiea Heights may have one of the highest concentrations of exotic mail boxes, including a blue dolphin, and many mailboxes designed to match the home (or barn-look) in the neighborhood. A "tree-trunk" mail box is more than 20 years old, says Margaret Hansen.
"It's a log cabin with windows and flowers around the edge," says Martins.
"I've got it on my fence. My son sent it to me from Cincinnati. He asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I said I could use a mailbox but to make it an unusual one."
Thomas T. Takata won the award for his "most unusual" mailbox, in the shape of a golfer bent over with a club. The mail slot is in the center of the body.
The U.S. Postal Service does have rules about mailboxes, but they are not always followed. The mailbox must be accessible to the carrier. That means the mailbox, at the low side, must be between 42 to 48 inches from the road surface. It must be at least 61/2 inches wide, 19 inches long and 81/2 inches high, but the box can be larger if you get a lot of mail. Putting your mailbox next to your neighbors is a big help to the mail carrier.
Avoid using massive supports that could damage vehicles and cause injury. Heavy metal posts, concrete posts and milk cans filled with concrete are examples of potentially dangerous supports, says the postal service.
Community associations also may have rules to assure that home mailboxes are not garish or vulgar.
The city requires that the street address be no more than 1 square foot in size, according to the city Department of Land Utilization.
Despite regulations, curbside creativity is thriving. Mailboxes come in all types of materials - including wood, metal, brick and tile.
An alligator, rabbit, Dalmatian, an upside down male torso and a large black milk can decorated with oversized postage stamps also have brightened the days of mail carriers.
Luana Lum and her daughter, Maile, 29, put up a gingerbread house over their mailbox for Christmas at their Waianae home. The home was made of cedar, with white latex caulking for the icing. "When we put up the home again for Christmas, we want to add lights," said Lum.
If you are looking for a truly different mailbox, check with "The Mailbox Man," who has access to 250 different models through catalogues and kits assembled locally.
"The novelty boxes comes in just about everything - animals, houses, cars, trucks, boats - and there are people in Florida, Michigan and California who can make anything you want," says David "Pappy" Northcott, company owner.
Northcott has been operating his business for nearly five years, using a display at the Aloha flea market. He goes around town in a pickup truck, with a large mailbox on the back.
His most unusual job was a 4-foot-long sea-gull mounted on top of driftwood, at a cost of about $600.
Unusual mailboxes also are carried by the "At Home" store in Aiea. You can get a fire truck, plane, swan, shark or bird mailbox. They each cost $75, not including the cost of the post or foundation.
