Bob

Batz

Read Bob's bio and previous columns

May 15, 2009

Finally! A Fish-Shaped Mailbox

I was driving along a country road the other day when I saw it.

It was a mailbox shaped like a fish, and it was in front of an old farmhouse with peeling paint, a sagging front porch and lots of weeds in the yard.

I’ve never had a mailbox shaped like a fish and as I admired that one I suddenly realized I wanted one.

I mean, hey, why not? I’ve had lots of neat things in my lifetime, including a 1957 Chevrolet convertible with red leather seats, a Louisville Slugger baseball bat autographed by Al Kaline – my boyhood hero – and a parakeet that was trained by a previous owner to utter some absolutely fantastic cuss words.

During that same lifetime I’ve also owned dozens of mailboxes, but all of them were shaped like . . . well . . . mailboxes.

The mailbox I saw on that rural road that day was a really cool fish-shaped mailbox. I think the fish was a bass, or maybe a trout, and it had a big mouth so the rural mail carrier could stuff all sorts of junk mail into it.

I told Sally about my sudden urge.

“How would you like to have a mailbox shaped like a fish?” I asked.

“Not much,” she replied.

 
Buoyed by her unbridled enthusiasm for my idea, I went on-line to check out the prices of fish mailboxes and discovered you can get a decent one for around $99 plus postage and handling.

Then I came up with a clever little plan. I’m going to buy a fish-shaped mailbox for Sally on her next birthday.

I can’t wait to see the look on her face when she unwraps it.

Contact Bob at bbatz@woh.rr.com     

© 2009 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

Click here to talk to our writers and editors about this column and others in our discussion forum.

To e-mail feedback about this column, click here. If you enjoy this writer's work, please contact your local newspapers editors and ask them to carry it.

This is Column # BB159. Request permission to publish here.