Monday, February 04, 2008

So here I was the other day cleaning my basement out...

Every so often, in order to move around in my basement, I have to take out the shovel and shovel out the "stuff" that we no longer need nor use. Now usually that consists of old boxes, too small or worn out clothes, old newspapers and so forth. This time, however, I decided to get a little adventurous and go on an archaeological dig into the shelves under the stairs and clear out stuff I hadn't seen for a good decade. I had no idea what I was going to find but what the heck... I thought that maybe I could find something of value to sell on eBay.

So here I was in my archaeologist blue jeans and t-shirt along with a beer for sustenance hoping to get lucky... well, not THAT lucky!

Choosing to work my way from top to bottom, I climbed up to the upper most shelf and pulled down an old binder of some sorts wrapped up in a padded envelope. Dusting off the envelope, I proceeded to tear it open and pull out what I thought was going to be an old high school binder when to my surprise what I actually discovered was my old stamp album I didn't even know I had anymore.

Back when I was just a lad of about eight years old, I, like many other boys and girls collected stamps. Nowadays, stamp collecting is not as popular as it once was and therefore, it doesn't even occur to boys and girls how fascinating this hobby could be.

I remember my weekend trips down to the local stamp collector and spending some of my hard earned money for that special stamp. I collected mostly Canadian, British, Indian, Australian and American stamps as these were the countries that most of our friends and relatives came from. I did, however, collect from many other countries as well.

Around the age of 16 when I was heavily into girls sports, my interest for stamp collecting waned but my desire to preserve my collection did not. As a result, I now still have a piece of my childhood with me to pass on to my children or future grandchildren one day. This stamp collection of mine will always be a good part of my memories and will continue to do so.

While flipping through the pages, I came across one of my favorite Canadian stamps and immediately thought of Josie and her interest in artists and paintings and I am sure that if you ask her as to who painted the picture on the stamp she would immediately tell you that it was Tom Thompson from the Group of Seven. I also came across an appropriate "LGS" Malaysian stamp while looking around on the net and wouldn't you know it... it is of a flying squirrel! So Lone Grey Squirrel, "this one's for you!"

So now that I have made this “discovery of historical proportions,” I have decided to not sell it on eBay but instead place it back into the envelope from whence it came, place it back on the uppermost shelf and save it for a rainy day when my future grandchildren come over for a visit. Come to think of it, maybe they won't even know what stamps are by then! Who knows!

Only time will tell.

18 comments:

geewits said...

What great find! I'm glad you decided to keep it. It will be a great treasure for future generations of Davelets.

Anonymous said...

Interesting collection.
Hey the Malaysia stamp you have is unique. This is because it has a dollar sign on it. They have used Rm; Ringgit (Malaysian dollar) for quite awhile now. It is really an unusual piece.

Alexander
Alex's World! - http://www.kakinan.com/alex

BBC said...

Not having a basement I keep all my junk in little storage units here.

I have 7 of them here, that gives you a picture of what my yard looks like. LOL

Going through them is like Christmas. I intend on dying with all this crap, it will be my legacy. :-)

Jazz said...

Sweet Jesus! I remember that 10 cent stamp. Makes me suddenly feel old.

Akelamalu said...

LOL so you found the stamp album and hours later put it back without doing any more clearing out of the basement??? Good excuse! ((wink))

Lone Grey Squirrel said...

Thanks Dave. Alexander could be right about the stamp being rare. Fortunately I do not have all that loose skin under my arms.

sandy said...

Ohhhhh, love treasure hunts in dark corners....

I have a ton of stamps my mom in law left here when she died. I have no clue if they are valuable or not. Some of glass plates of old European scenes...hmmm..maybe I am wealthy and don't even know it yet.

s

Wanda said...

You did find a treasure. I know you grandchilden will love it someday....don't get rid of them.

Andrea said...

Interesting find. We do not have a basement. We do have a garage though. Luckily the garage stays clean for parking our vehicles BUT on the back side of the garage is a storage room. I do not go into that room, it is my husbands. And come to think of it, I do not think he goes in there, he just opens the door and throws it in and closes the door. Every few months he has to clean it out to find the ............ floor.

Anonymous said...

I'm with you about keeping it. That's a very cool find. I have a small coin collection that I'm hanging on to for the kids (grandkids?).

heiresschild said...

now those are what i call good treasure hunts. i think children today are so into the internet, tv, computer games, and talking on cell phones, they're missing out on a lot of good hobbies like that. i started collecting stamps a few years ago, especially the Black series stamps. i have a coin collection also that i'm keeping for my grandchildren. i have original newspapers of important events. my mom still has my father's count basie, duke ellington, etc. 78's and 33-1/3 LP's. how's that for treasures. your grandchildren will love looking thru your treasures one day.

do Dave, did you ever get your basement cleaned?

heiresschild said...

that's supposed to be, "so Dave.....

BBC said...

I have 1500 Mexican Peso's, coins, not paper. Found them years after buying a pickup that had come from Arizona. They were under a carpet floor in the glovebox.

I have a 1976 Silver dollar, don't recall where it came from. Don't know why I keep it, I just keep stuff.

I have lots of stuff I have forgotten I even have.

virtual nexus said...

Great post - everyone seems to be having a clear out at the moment!

Interesting comment re the demise of stamps - pity someone can't invent 'email stamps' for variety....

Becky Wolfe said...

What a fun discovery! I collected spoons when I was little but never accumulated too many. Love the malaysian squirrel stamp - what a coincidence!

David Kim said...

I had a small stamp collection too. But, I had a pretty nice coin collection. My parents were always getting rid of my stuff so I don't know where my collections are anymore.

jAMiE said...

What fun...thank you for sharing your treasure.

Karen said...

I'm sure one day you will have grandchildren who will get a kick out of your stamp collection. It will probably be considered an eccentric hobby by then so maybe you will be thought of as "Crazy Grandpop Dave" by future generations.....LOL.