Envelopes and Postage Stamps went with childhood for me...as a young immigrant in Canada, my Grandparents would write me in Dutch, and to keep me interested, my grandfather would collect as many stamps and send them on. Holding some real paper in my hand with the pictures and history of my homeland, and the countries we had immigrated to and from made it real for me. I became interested in Geography, and History seeing the colonies and the heads of various European Kings and Dictators as they controlled Africa and The Middle East. Recently I read that the post office system will probably be gone in 10 years, with UPS and Fed Ex taking over. The era of affordable mail brought about by the Universal Postal Union which allowed people worldwide to send paper, handwriting and pictures that could be held, read, savored, and stashed for the children, will probably cease, as Facebook Accounts and e-mail substitute for real paper, a pen, a stamp and a legacy.
I remember my folks complaining that since the phone came into the world back in the 40's, people no longer came to visit as often, and since TV, people didn't eat meals together as often, and on and on. I'm sure one day an envelope with a well crafted stamp will be as rare as the antique washboards and the horse and carriage...but I shall miss them...miss counting the Christmas cards, where the number meant how much you meant to others, miss soaking stamps and looking in the catalog for its companions, seeing drawings of history before Wikipedia could answer all your questions. I know, at 66 I'm history, too.
we might miss envelopes and stamps, like our grandparents could have missed horses and carriages but we're still young enough to enjoy not only the advantage of modern technology but also to realise the advantage that it brought to our world! Without this modern technology, the revolution in Egypt (for example) could have taken another turn! New facts and items, no matter how modern or renewing they are, will become history one day! So... i try to keep myself updated with modern technology and try to enjoy advantages of this technology just like I enjoy writing this message to you via internet... And sorry, at 66 you're not yet history.... still a way to go my friend, even if you and I don't know how long it will be, how much time it will take! In this way, even your way of taking pictures, how you frame or model them is inspiring for others, for me and is a sign that you're not yet history!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement, Jean-Paul.
ReplyDeleteI miss the written (by hand) letters and notes... I like the ease and quickness of email and computers also.... and I guess if my life reflects my druthers... I use the computer more... but still try to send birthday cards with a letter...
ReplyDeletemiss you too dear friend and so good to see your face here... I have a blog here too...
come see me some time ... love PJ
Having been a stamp collector from childhood, I empathize strongly with all you've said here, Peter. A few weeks ago I took my entire collection to a stamp dealer in Columbus, Ohio, to have it appraised for sale. As he and I carefully turned each page of the albums, it became obvious to both of us that I could no more sell these keepsakes and the memories they evoked than I could sell my own siblings, or my thirteen-year-old companion Bear Dog. For the past thirty years, I've exchanged letters every other week with a "lifer" who was my inmate clerk when I taught GED classes in a state prison. I've been using stamps from my collection for postage on those letters -- which my friend passed on to prisoner philatelists. All that now remains of my collection are stamps printed when I was in junior high school -- mid 1950's. These will stay "home" to fire fond memories for their 69-year-old keeper.
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