old stamps of america
I used to collect stamps. Maybe the first presents I received when I was a kid was a stamp album and some stamps. Later on, I narrowed my focus and collected only American stamps. The good old U.S.A. Don't ask me why. Perhaps the stamps are of a uniform size, making it easy to display in an album. I no longer collect stamps now, but the old albums are still with me.
photo by dsnake1
old stamps of america
i used to chase them down
like a bounty hunter
in decrepit old malls
dimly lit shops
from the elderly man
spreading out his wares
on a plastic sheet at Thieves' Market.
tracked them down
like a bloodhound
then locked them up
in made-in-china albums.
i have them all, the flags,
the battles, the presidents,
air mails, space missions, native arts.
amerika! amerika!
i know more about you
than my own country.
it is a strange hobby.
i could go chase skirts
write poetry, get into trouble
but gone crazy over stamp collecting!
written : early 1990's
revised : dec 2013
****************
Simon & Garfunkel - America
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2021
old stamps of america
i used to chase them down
like a bounty hunter
in decrepit old malls
dimly lit shops
from the elderly man
spreading out his wares
on a plastic sheet at Thieves' Market.
tracked them down
like a bloodhound
then locked them up
in made-in-china albums.
i have them all, the flags,
the battles, the presidents,
air mails, space missions, native arts.
amerika! amerika!
i know more about you
than my own country.
it is a strange hobby.
i could go chase skirts
write poetry, get into trouble
but gone crazy over stamp collecting!
written : early 1990's
revised : dec 2013
****************
Simon & Garfunkel - America
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2021
Labels: 60's, 70's, America, heartlands, nostalgia, Singapore
posted by dsnake1 at 10:19 PM
13 Comments:
That was one of hy hobbies in my teen years
Happy Sunday Cheong Lee san
Much💗love
You describe the thrill of the chase of stamp collecting so well. I'd love to see your album. Well penned.
I always thought of stamp collecting as a very sophisticated hobby. One of my friends starting writing because of stamp collecting. He would write a story for each stamp--about the stamp and how he got it. I wasn't very interested then, but now... it reads alluring.
Yeah, me too, almost a century ago...
It's cool when we can find a hobby that opens us up to another part of the world. LOL, tea certainly became that for me. I also like picking out fun stamps to send out correspondence.
Gillena,
You too? :D
I don't have any Trinidad & Tobago stamps, though i have some other Commonwealth country stamps. The bulk are USA stamps.
Beverly,
yes, sometimes the thrill of the chase is more satisfying than the catch. :)
the albums are all very yellowed.
Magaly,
yes, i still think that it is quite a sophisticated hobby, and pretty expensive too, if one is quite deep into it.
i have thought of writing a story for each stamp i collect but found it daunting. maybe i won't be writing poetry if i had gone into it, haha!
I was a childhood stamp collector, encouraged by my Grandpa who was an adult one. I think all my adults felt it would be good for my grasp of both history and geography. But it wasn't really my own personal fascination and so it didn't last. Nice to revisit it briefly, here, though.
Ron.
that long ago, huh? :)
Rommy,
i think a person should have at least a healthy hobby. stamps open up a country's history and geography.
tea certainly sounds like a fun hobby, and you get to taste it too. it tells us about the culture and geography of a place.
Rosemary,
you're a childhood collector too!
your grandpa's collection might be worth something now. Anyway, i stopped when i entered military service. there were some periods i wanted to resume, but it never happened.
Tiny pieces of art, those stamps. My mother tried to get me interested but my younger self moved on.
It seems many of us dabbled in collecting - interesting.
Joel,
now that you mentioned it, yes, those stamps are tiny pieces of art.
i guess we dabbled in collecting because we like beautiful things?
Thank you for visiting. :)
Stamps and coins... seems like it was a century ago!! Wish I had saved the albums!
What a fantastic hobby stamp collecting was. I still have albums full of my chosen countries, they are waiting for a young relative asking "Did you ever collect stamps?" and I can then give them a present!
Thotpurge,
You should. :)
Robin,
That would have surprised them!
I wonder youngsters still collect stamps nowadays. i must go to the next exhibition, if there is one, to find out. :)
I have some stamps and FDCs of Australia.
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