Philately is Phun!

I finally figured out how to use the scanner part of our printer. That is, I finally read the directions.

My first scan is this picture from the Milwaukee Sentinel. My dad framed it and gave it to me as a Christmas gift five or six years ago. It's yours truly, age 6, being a big help, I'm sure, at Milcopex '78. This is one of three times I can remember appearing in the newspaper as a result of being at the stamp shows. I don't have copies of the other two, but I know one was a Milwaukee paper and the other Rockford. I must have been the cutest thing going at the stamp shows. Or maybe I was so popular with the photographers because I was the only non-smoker under the age of 50 who weighed less than 250 pounds. Stamp collecting is not a hobby that's good for your waist-line, especially if it's also how you make your living.

The best thing about the stamp shows was that there was usually free donuts. I also got to travel to exotic places like Whitewater, Janesville, Fort Atkinson, Rockford, and Rolling Meadows. Stamps were also good for learning geography, history, and even vocabulary - before I hit the age of ten, I could amaze my friends by telling them I'd spent the weekend at a bourse, hanging out with philatelists and numismatists.