Sister Fohr was a convert to the church. She was an elderly lady, retired school teacher. She taught Sunday School. I remember she had wrinkly skin like my grandmother. She was much skinnier than my grandmother however. One time she invited many of us to her house for a Mormon tea.
I think that was when she introduced me to the world of stamp collecting. I was 10 at the time, and I must admit I was not a very good collector; at least I was not very good at keeping my stamps pristine.
She of course told me about stamp hinges, but they were too expensive and too hard to come by. As a result, I attached most of my stamps with scotch tape. That is not a good idea if you are trying to preserve stamps as the acid in scotch tape leaves a greasy stain.
However Sister Fohr introduced me to First-Day-Covers and she gave me my first. It was of the Illinois Sesquicentennial. (I destroyed it by putting scotch tape on it but fortunately I attended a parade and meeting at the time honoring the Sesquicentennial and received a program with another first-day-of-issue.) She also gave me a lot of stamps from Laos. I still display them proudly in my album. I don’t know if she had a son serving in the military there, or how she came to have them.
I formed a stamp club with some of my friends at the time. Tim Patterson lived across the street and also went to our church. He was part of the club. I also sent for stamps on approval, and with any penny I could spare I purchased extra stamps.
Stamp collecting has been a hobby that has stayed with me over the years. I am not an active stamp collector all of the time, but I pick up the hobby and put it down as suits my needs and interests. I owe the pleasure I have taken from this hobby to Sister Fohr.
No comments:
Post a Comment