Postal Service Amenities

To give you some background on this post - we live in a cul de sac that has a shared set of mailboxes in a row.  There are 8 houses in our cul de sac, and all 8 mailboxes are lined up in front of our yard, shared with our neighbor's yard.  

Some mailboxes in the U.S. are individual, some are grouped like ours, some are directly at your door, some are in post boxes (like an apartment building) and some are directly post-office boxes you have to physically go to the post office to get.

With the mailboxes in our cul de sac, sometimes we walk out and get the mail, sometimes our super nice mail delivery lady brings it directly to our doorstep if we have packages, and sometimes out of convenience we drive up and get it via our vehicles like a McDonald's drive thru (#WINTER - am I right?).

When Marisa first arrived, I felt self-conscious as I drove up to our mailbox for the first time being aware of what she may think about this and not knowing if this is how it is in Germany.  She's going to think "Lazy Americans.  Those fools are so lazy they can't even walk to get their mail - no wonder they are fat and overweight."

But - I have to live how I live, and I can't change myself because a stranger from Germany who wants the American experience may judge me.  

Sometimes I walk to get my mail, sometimes I make my kids get it for me, and sometimes I drive up to it - especially in the winter.  Of course, now that I'm working from home, I walk to it most days, but it just depends, ya know?  I'm not going to be ashamed of this convenience.

I think initially Marisa thought it was interesting we could drive up to our mailboxes and I think she laughed, but I couldn't tell if it was a judgy thing or a "that's so American thing", but I concluded I did not think this was in a negative "being American" kind of way. (more background - sometimes she would say "that's so American" about some things so I would always guess in my head if something was "that's so American" or not and I still to this day wonder if she had that thought about our mailboxes).

She soon discovered how amazing it is that we can put our mail in our mailboxes, lift the flag, and it is magically carted off to its destination without having to go to the post office.

In Germany, they have mail come to their front door (think Uncle Buck mail slot where Macauley Culkin peeks through and doesn't let Buck's girlfriend, Chanice in).  It was interesting that Marisa stated maybe Germans are the lazy ones here because they don't have to walk or drive to get their mail and it comes directly to their door.

BUT - they do not have magical flags where mail is picked up like we do.  They need to drive, sometimes around 20 miles or more to send out mail or packages.

We also have convenient mail drop boxes scattered around town that I'm sure she doesn't know about and knowing they have to travel to get their mail, I'm guessing they also do not have those.

So USPS - 1, Germany - 0.

I never even thought about the mail before - I guess I assumed everybody got their mail picked up like we did - NOPE.