It is unusual a mailbox chokes you up, and because there are too many probable causes—not for the mailbox: for my being choked up—let me simply tell you it was the phrase affixed in those janky silver sticker letters, usually used for a name or address, a little crooked, the V and W peeling slightly, the phrase itself leaning back, lounging, or maybe almost indiscernibly ascending:
TRAVELERS WELCOME
TRAVELERS WELCOME
~ Ross Gay in THE BOOK OF (MORE) DELIGHTS