Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
P.O. Boxes, Mailboxes and the No. 17
injest:
I always pictured the 'gift shop' as that little area inside a grocery/gas station/restaurant thing like we have here in small towns in Texas....kinda a one stop shop...
ifyoucantfixit:
When I was a teenager. Around about the same time as Jack and Ennis.. We lived way out from the
main town. However we had a truck stop, gas station with a small grocery store, and a post office all in one
building. There was a section to buy levis, shirts and hats. Scarves and gloves. Both work gloves and mittens.
There was a basic food store and a gift card and post card section near the post office as well. As Jess says,
a one stop store, for those times between saturdays for things you needed and didnt have. Since back
then we only went to the market one time a week. It also allowed the huband or sweetheart the luxury of a few gifts for that forgotten birthday, or anniversary too. And oh yes a hand dipped icecream section, and picnic
tables out front. You could sit and visit, or have your soda and ice cream. A bunch of us teens used to ride
bikes over there after we rode the bus home from school and meet and talk and flirt....whatever teens did
back then. Talk about friday night parties at my house. Or out by the reservoirs. LOL
You know stone age stuff.
Shakesthecoffecan:
That could well be it.
You teenage years sound a lot like mine Janice, except I never had parties at my house. ;D
Penthesilea:
--- Quote from: Shakestheground on February 23, 2008, 03:16:28 pm ---The Number 17 having been discussed beyond my ability to take it all in, I would like to add that I think that Ennis having a mailbox is meaningful in that:
1. He has given up the P.O. Box necessitated by frequest moves, it was a place where Jack could reach him.
--- End quote ---
Ehm, Jack was dead when Ennis put up the PO box :-\
--- Quote ---3. It was symbolic in that he was acknowledging that he was going to be right there, was not going anywhere else, and that the only opportunity he may ever have to live elsewhere was gone.
--- End quote ---
What a sad, but logical view. I can't help seeing the exact same action in a more positive light, somehow like making a declaration : Here I am, Ennis Del Mar.
--- Quote ---Now I never understood why he was in Higgins Gift Shop. He never struck me as the kind of person who would go into a gift shop.
--- End quote ---
Depends on what associativities you have with the term gift shop. Like others have already stated, I thought of a small, old-fashioned corner-shop.
What I found interesting is the fact that Linda Higgings called Ennis by his first name. She knew who he was and they were on friendly enough terms that she called him Ennis.
I somehow picture Linda Higgins as a motherly, middle-aged woman who was on friendly terms with all townsfolk who regularly stopped by her shop.
When Jack came for his surpise visit after the divorce, he had to ask ten different people to find Ennis. But Linda Higgins knew who Ennis was. I like her for this.
TOoP/Bruce:
--- Quote from: Penthesilea on February 23, 2008, 06:29:40 pm ---Ehm, Jack was dead when Ennis put up the PO box :-\
--- End quote ---
A PO Box is a delivery box rented inside the post office. The box that Ennis puts up for mail delivery outside the trailer is the kind that would be used for a R.R. (Rural Route) address, and even though it is numbered, it probably wouldn't be referred to as a PO box.
I believe Ennis picks up his mail general delivery rather than uses a PO box, which means that the post office holds on to it until he comes to the post office to pick it up.
Edit: RR is also listed as RFD (Rural Free Delivery) in some parts of the country.
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