Abundance, by the book (of stamps)

As a 1980s teenager I was part of a penpal ring. We’d send letters, stickers, and slam books. I had loads of stationery, construction paper, and return address labels purchased from the Current Catalog which amazingly still exists today! ¹

But postage stamps were the bane of my existence, because they were household stamps. The house always had some stamps — every bill was paid by mail, after all — but if I used up too many, we’d need more. I could get someone to take me to the post office to buy my own, but that was critical allowance money that I’d have to save up.

As a 2020s crone, I’m part of a card swap and have a prolific pen pal. I also write Postcards to Voters (Though I’ve been on a break since February. I’ll get back to that in September). Because of this volume of personal mail, I usually will buy more than one book of regular stamps at a time. And I using love hemed stamps for holiday cards.

Back in 2004, I wrote that a brick of Velveeta in my refrigerator was a sign that I finally arrived². Over 20 years later, I’m ready to add another.

It’s a stash of US postage stamps. Winter Stamps! Valentine Stamps! Baby Animals! Postcard stamps by the freaking ROLL!

And international stamps! Do I mail internationally often? No. But can I? Oh, yes I can.

I’m so lucky. I’m so very lucky to be able to have even these simple caches of abundance.

1. Another catalog I shopped as a teen, Lillian Vernon, was acquired by Current ↩︎
2. I left the house, ended the marriage, and still have not gotten back to the place where I’d spend extra money on a refrigerator with ice. But in 2004, I had no idea what was coming. It’s cute! ↩︎