Dear Everyone ~
I’ve recently returned from two glorious weeks in England.
One of Zak’s nephews was getting married in Chester,
a town where we’ve stayed many times—and
with whose post office I am well acquainted.
We spent our first week on a farm in Yorkshire,
which was perfectly pastoral.
The wedding festivities were glowing,
and the city offered up several magical interludes.
As you might imagine, a couple of them involved the posting of mail—
a ritual that is of course preceded by the affixing of stamps.
I was delighted to find that the post office had relocated
to the basement of a W.H. Smith, the venerable British emporium
for magazines and books, stationery and office supplies,
pens and chocolate bars.
More than convenient—divine.
When we travel overseas, one of my favourite things to do
is accumulate current stamps, which I select for their design.
I’m also fond of collecting Par Avion labels and stickers.
This trip I decided to take my entire British postage collection
with me, so that I could enjoy using all the lovely stamps
I had acquired over the years, including
King Henry VIII & All His Wives.
In England, like in the U.S., if you have vintage stamps
that haven’t been used, they’re still valid for postage.
However, many of my British stamps have no denomination
printed on them, so I can’t really figure out which stamps
to use to add up to international first class mail. And,
even if there were denominations, I realize that I have no idea
what the current rates are for sending postcards and envelopes to the U.S.
Hmmm.
I want to arrive at the P.O. somewhat prepared,
so I decide to start adding stamps semi-willy nilly,
the more the merrier. I wield my Italian gluestick,
with its delightful aroma of maraschino cherries.
As my postal muse says, “When in doubt, overfrank!”
And then when I get to the P.O. if I need more postage on anything,
I can purchase it at the source.
Well, when my mail and I present ourselves at the P.O.,
the clerk is a young lad who has never even seen some of the stamps I’ve used.
He is patient and efficient and helpful, weighing each
and every one of my letters and postcards to be sure I have
enough postage. He proceeds to show me the current offerings.
I choose some classic Q.E. stamps
(which are now self-adhesive, but still in assorted beguiling colours)
to add on to the few envelopes that require more postage than I had attached.
Here comes the endearing bit:
The clerk places the needed stamps for each card or
envelope on top of it, carefully making a stack, so that I can then take
them aside and enjoy the moment of adding the stamps.
I loved his thoughtfulness— his concern for organisation
and my desire to enjoy attaching the stamps myself.
Royally chuffed,
Bari