But what does a box mean to me, a person well over 60? Let me tell you about just one box.

A box can be the best toy to come out of any shop. Just ask a parent or person who works with children, and you will be amazed at the number of uses children find for a cardboard box. Close your eyes and remember seeing a child with a box!   Was it a shop, a train, a cubby house? The list would be endless.

Early one morning my faithful dog started barking. When she barks, I listen. Heavy footsteps along my path and up the steps, gasp (that was me), the sound of something being dropped. My dog is desperate to get out the front door. The footsteps go back down the steps and by now I have guessed what has been happening. I open the door, no-one there, just a box, so my dog feels in control again. I call out a thank you to the Courier. I can’t wait to open the box because I know it will contain the plants and bulbs that I have ordered for my garden.

There are tasks I should be doing, but surely new plants and bulbs take precedence over them! Hmm nice sized box, I’ll keep that.

One week or so later I went out to check my letterbox. Where is my letter box? It has been stolen. Who would take an old letter box? All the letter boxes in my neighbours’ front yards are still standing proud. What am I going to do? I don’t really have time to go looking for a new one and perhaps it will turn up like vanished gnomes sometimes do. But what will I do as a temporary measure?

I know! The box. Damp ground or even rain will be a challenge, so I put a plastic bucket into the box so that moisture can’t creep up from the ground and damage any mail in ‘the box’, seal up the top and cut a slot big enough for mail and the local paper. Type a notice for the top.

“My letter box has been stolen. This is my temporary effort”.

I put a stake next to it and put the cord around the box and the stake. No, of course, it wasn’t to prevent someone from stealing my temporary letterbox, it was to stop it from being blown away. It can get very windy this time of year. With rain about I moved it under the shelter of the carport at night and brought it out early each morning.

Yesterday my new letterbox took over the task of securing and protecting my mail and the box has served its purpose. Well not quite; next week it goes out with the papers and cardboard for recycling.

Have you ever had your letterbox or something completely odd stolen ? What did you do? Tell us below.

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