I was writing my 2014 Christmas cards and I was remembering my first learning experience about the world. When I was a boy, I had discovered the joy of Philately (Stamp Collecting). At the time, I was fascinated mostly with the graphics and variations of stamps from around the world, but now I realize how much it had a direct impact on my life.

My father also had a stamp collection, which was much larger than mine. His main collection had 3 of each stamp whenever he had three to put in it. Many of the stamps came from family and friends that had written to my grandparents after they came to the US in 1950. Every stamp collector has a doubles album (an album that has duplicates of what is in the main collection.) and my father was no exception. He would not give me any of his stamps, but he made me trade stamps I had in my doubles album.

I never knew how much stamp collecting would help me when I was older. I was able to learn about the many countries around the world just from stamps I had added to my collection.

With many of the new stamps having self adhesive, I miss the days of soaking pieces of envelopes in order to extract a stamp. I could spend a whole day soaking stamps off envelopes and drying them only to later sort them and add them to either my collection or doubles album. 

I think that engaging the younger generation in stamp collecting can be a precursor to getting them interested in their ancestry. They will gain a better knowledge of the world and the country changes that have taken place over the years.

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