Several weeks ago, a mailbox, newly ordered from the crap-for-my-McMansion Frontgate catalog, appeared outside of a lovely home just down the street.  We are puzzled. While a mailbox may not seem unusual, in Bridgehampton, it is.  There is no U.S. Postal Service mail delivery in either Bridgehampton or Sagaponack. In order to receive mail, residents must make the daily voyage to the local Post Office to pick it up from a P.O. Box.  Boxes for are free for those without delivery. 

No matter how innocuous the designs, a row of mailboxes down a street is just ugly.  One of the minor elements that has helped preserve the beauty of Bridgehampton, despite the overblown, overlit, overwindowed homes, is the lack of mailbox poles lining the streets.  Despite a modicum of taste and restraint, someone always purchases the 'cow'. Just drive around the hamlet of Water Mill, where they have mail delivery, and you will see the difference.

Mail delivery is only an occasionally-debated topic in Bridgehampton.  Daily trips to the Post Office are certainly a chore, especially for seniors and those with young children.  Lack of delivery also poses complications for businesses.  But there is an endearing element of small-town life that we experience in our daily visits to the Post Office.  Local attorney Jim Riordan once opined eloquently at a Bridgehampton CAC meeting, that collecting our mail at the Post Office was one of our last remaining community rituals, and a welcome opportunity to connect with friends and neighbors in the dead of winter.  And it's one we would be foolish to abandon. 

Postal delivery isn't coming any time soon. There are complicated government formulas about parking lot size, square footage and staffing that make mail delivery impossible, as long the two post offices remain in their current locations.  So as we pass the house with the shiny new mailbox we wonder...is the box for Newsday, private courier deliveries, or is it just another homeowner with no idea where they are?