Christmas mailboxes, 1950

I love this old photo, which I found in a 1950 copy of New Hampshire Troubadour. It reminds me of old family photos of this vintage in which one of my aunts, a college student at the time, very much resembled the girl approaching the mailboxes in this picture.

This photo just speaks volumes to me of the simpler, happier way life used to be. The day's mail has arrived, so the girl leaves the woodsmoke-tinged warmth of the farmhouse and heads out into the chilly December sunshine to get the mail. No snow blowers back then; just a simple path through the snow. The packages waiting at the mailboxes are simple too -- wrapped in brown paper or holiday wrapping paper and string, a no-no in the post office's book these days. No worries, either, about someone stealing the gifts. Life was so much simpler in so many ways back then. I'm thankful to have some photos like this one to remind me.