Philatelist no more
I used to collect stamps as a kid, not because I wanted to but because my Uncle Francis wanted someone to foist his collection onto. I don’t know if his wife forced him to declutter or what, but I found myself the unwitting owner of a bunch of stamps from all over the world.
It’s not that I minded that much as a kid. I was rather fascinated by the beautiful art on some of the stamps and the idea that they are from places I’d never heard of and might never go to. Ahem, New Hebrides, I’m looking at you.
Weirdly enough, despite my lack of passion about stamp collecting, those albums moved with me from Hong Kong to Vancouver to Delaware to Indiana. And the collection used to be actively growing when I was young because people (that would be mostly my mom and relatives) assumed I wanted to collect more since I already had them. It’s like with my friend who was given a cow ornament one year as a joke, and then suddenly everyone gave her cow knick-knacks because they assumed she liked and collected them.
Still, this collection occasionally gives me moments of delight. For example, when Zolima Magazine posted on Facebook:
I was excited because I immediately knew I have the same stamp! And here it is, in one of the albums:
Not only that, but because philatelists are wacky ardent collectors, postal services have these special commemorative envelopes made for them, too. Here’s my (or really, my uncle’s…I’m just his surrogate) collection of the Lunar New Year celebratory stamp stuff:
Some of you might notice that I’m missing 3 envelopes: the Year of the Rabbit, the Year of the Snake, and the Year of the Goat/Sheep. I do have both the Rabbit stamps and one of the Snake stamps, but nada for the Goat/Sheep and I have no idea why. Now it’s going to bug me for a while; I’ll have to search the entire collection thoroughly to see if it’s misplaced somewhere.
What about you? Do you collect or have you ever collected stamps? And if you do/did, WHY??? LOL! Let me know if you want to inherit my collection.
