Hasn't everybody seen the classic movie, "The Wizard of Oz?"  I know I have, let's see, how many hundred times? Everybody has their favorite character, ranging from Aunt Em to Dorothy's little dog Totto (not the rock band!) but my favorite character was the Tin Man, as he had a good heart, even if he didn't think he had one.  I had always believed that the Tin Man was a make-up character, only to be found in a classic book and a very classic movie.

Photo:  Sonora's Tin Man, doing what he does best, holding up mailboxes.

Recently, my perception of that idea changed a bit, during a weekend visit to Sonora, California.  We were spending a romantic weekend in Tuloumne County, just looking around, as the Sonora/Twain Harte area is a prime candidate for our place of retirement.  Imagine my shock, as we were driving east on highway 108, just east of Sonora, when I saw the Tin Man, on the right side of the road.  Another amazing thing about Sonora's Tin Man, is that he's thrown away his axe and has a brand new occupation of holding up mailboxes!

As the song goes, "Oz didn't give nothing to the Tin Man, that he didn't already have..."  but what Oz didn't give him, Sonora did:  A new identity and a new job.

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