29.9.11

Collecting Stamps


My father initiated my stamp collection when I was in grade 1 or 2. It was modest to be sure, until we met Dr. Pierce in Alberta. Dr. Pierce was a tremendous collector with lots and lots of doubles to which he gave us full access. Our collection grew quickly and broadly during my grades 4-7. It was later fostered by a friend of ours who works in a Swiss bank as the mail guy. Christian would send us envelopes full of stamps for the collection. As my interest waned in philately and was redirected to hockey cards, girls, and girls, my collection lay in boxes as it moved across the country from house to house.



My son, Blaise, is in grade 1 now. This spring I started tearing out the odd stamp from letters received (many fewer than when I was growing up!) and Blaise and I began to collect. The process involves soaking the stamps in warm water to separate them from the envelope paper, drying them, pressing them, sorting them, and finally mounting them in albums.

During our trip to New Brunswick, I rediscovered my collection as it sits at my father's house. I found some of Christian's envelopes full of stamps, ready to collect and brought them back to Alberta.

Blaise is learning a lot about countries, how to handle and soak stamps, how to discern good and fair quality stamps. He's also very patient as we haven't actually mounted any stamps as we're only about half way through soaking and sorting through them.


So, the call is out - if you have any stamps you don't want... Blaise could use them for his collection!

2 comments:

Debby said...

You forgot to mention that your Great Grandpa Woodford collected Stamps for most of his life....he actually sold part of his collection when he was in his 60's to buy a car. He used to sit us down and show us his HUGE collection when I was a little girl. It wasn't that fascinating to me at that time...I would have rather been out playing. He would talk about each stamp. I had a small collection when I was little too.
Glad that you and Blaise have carried on the tradition !

Salome said...

I love that Blaise is into the process of collecting. P
It seems like a relaxing hobby.