HOW RUDE!

Yes, you! You know who you are! You know what you did! Your mother never raised you that way! Plow down an eighty-seven year old widow's mailbox and just keep on going! And in broad daylight, too! At the risk of stereotyping I think I have you pegged. You're the one who doesn't return your shopping cart to the cart corral. You litter the roadside with your fast food wrappers. If you're a smoker, you use the whole wide world for your ashtray. And you're the one who lays on the horn when I slow down to turn into my own driveway. I'm just glad you're not my neighbor...sorry for those unfortunates who are....

Tire track evidence show you veered off a straight stretch of road, ran down the letterbox post, and continued on your merry way. At least two traffic offenses there: failure to keep a motor vehicle on the roadway and driving distracted (most likely a hand held device part of the mix). Possibly some federal offense, too, such as interfering with rural route mail delivery (U.S. Postal Service will not delivery mail to a downed mailbox). Since the incident occurred midday, it's doubtful a DUI infraction was the cause although there's certainly precedent for such.

I've lost track of how many mailbox posts I've had to replace because of irresponsible motorists. A consequence of living on a busy highway, I suppose. Most have occurred when someone uses the driveway to turn around, miscalculates and backs over the post. Many happen during the night, leaving you rushing around the next morning to repair the damage before the postman arrives. I'm so well practiced in the routine that I can reset a new post in the course of an hour, including a trip to the lumber yard to purchase a replacement. But that's an hour I've lost because of some inconsiderate driver.

Twice now I've been witness to the vandalism--for that's really what it is, isn't it? The first I was working in the garden and heard the  signature"snap," looked out just in time to see the tilting mailbox and a pickup truck leaving the scene. The truck drove up North High Rock Rd. I staked out the road for a half hour hoping to confront the culprit when he returned but with no success. The second involved my neighbor lady's mailbox (the same victim whose downed mailbox prompted this post). I had just gone out to check our mail when I saw a small, brown pickup with a canopy turn around and back over the box stanchion. The driver drove slowly by me flagrantly disregarding my waving and gesturing. He too turned and drove up North High Rock, leaving me to wonder just what caliber of folks live in that community anyway.

A few years back WSDOT replaced our mailbox stanchion during a turn lane project ("Send us a Letter: Better yet, Make that a Check," July 23, 2010). The "upgrade" featured a "breakaway" stanchion, a perforated metal post designed to break away and prevent injury should a wayward motorist collide with it. I told the engineers if a driver was careless enough to damage my property and then rudely drive off, I wanted his vehicle to sustain some damage, and he, perhaps, lose a little skin. A smidgen of justice seems only appropriate.


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