One of my hobbies as a kid was collecting stamps. I had lots of hobbies but most were short lived. But I kept what I had collected in my childhood. I still have my collections now.
What started me on stamp collection? It was the letters my parents received in the mail and those they posted. I was fasinated with the postage stamps on the envelopes.
My mother taught me how to remove them and press them in a book. I did not have a stamp album so I kept my stamps in a book.
I still remember the book though I never read it. It was something about the evolution of man. The pictures were interesting though, ape changing to man. As that kid I prefered the one I was taught by my mother…God made me.
Well, coming back to my stamp collection. I told everyone I met that I was collecting stamps. And, if I could cut the stamp off the envelopes that they were going to throw away. Neighbours and friends were my source of getting postage stamps.
My father also got his office mates to contribute too. My book filled up with many stamps from foreign countries and local ones too.
It made me want to learn more about these countries and where they were on the map.
From the stamps of my own country I got to learn the history, of getting independence and my country’s name change.
My interest in stamp collection didn’t last long. I did manage to get a stamp album, but it remained the only one. And with those other lost interest of mine, my stamps went into storage.
Yesterday, I took out my stamp album and reminisced on where the stamps came from. It took me back to my childhood. A time when I checked out the school library, looked at world maps, read up on the countries those stamps came from and imagined being in those far off exciting places.
By C.E. Pereira
(21-2-2020)
