POSTAGE STAMPS

Postage stamps from around the world are a  very endangered specie. From zero to sixty the whole concept of licking a stamp and putting it on an envelope or package is TOAST. When I was a boy my maternal grandmother gave me some commemoratives. I licked my chops at what was at hand. History, geography and the presidency came to life in my young life. H.E. Harris published stamp albums and I learned how to apply stamps to hinges.

I learned stamp collecting was mostly a winter hobby. I learned the men at the North Brookfield Post Office were my friends and Miss Ruth Young mentored me in the ways of philatelic properties. Ronnie Stackow and I were kindred spirits in the ways of U.S. History. I was more aggressive than Stackow and got the better part of the trade.

I learned what FIRST DAY OF Issues were and began generating them in 1955.I have always enjoyed getting mail Nothing is so virgin than the birth of a stamp on an envelope I continued to grow as a collector and by the time I was at St.. Louis I sent home for my stamp album and started to sell! Trading is inherent in my spirit. " Buy and sell Bob"...the Blogger. Now I sell ideas. Right?

Postage stamps are so unique.. from the Penny Black to my favorite Scotts #834..President Calvin Coolidge. I interviewed his son, John once upon a time.

As I grew as a stamp enthusiast I seized the opportunity on 1 August, 1967. I was appointed Mail Clerk at APO SF 96291. Each day I would walk with a green nylon mail bag and go to the postal union. I made friends with a soldier by the name of Ford. Each day I secured a small package of "letters from home." They were bound in twine. It proved to be a marvelous way to get to know the men of the 345th General Dispensary.

At Christmas time "care packages" arrived from the States. Men beamed when I delivered the mails and packages. Being Mail Clerk to Vietnam buddies was one of the happiest moments in my 12 months and 12 days in 'Nam. You just can't believe what a letter does to a person's spirit... a hell of a lot better than a bill..or a Bob! LOL.

I have gone the full route with stamps. George H.W. Bush was part of my philatelic equation. So was Jackie Kennedy. What could she say when I sent Jackie a letter bearing her slain husband's image on an envelope marking the 30th anniversary of that tragic day in Dallas. But where are we going? FOREVER....Ok, Google. I don't think so.

Real stamps get rarer and rarer and rarerer...........We are losing the personal touch to correspondan

ce.It's like Camelot...for that one, brief, shining moment in time.......forever? I don't think so!