This is just spectacular --- Irene put it in a clear envelope which I knew would not photograph very well - so I positioned the stamp, stuck on it's corner - in the upper right - which is why it is up-side-down. The lettering is filled in with some kind of glittery paint or ink - so pretty. It's always fun to see that the inspiration that I get from people gets passed on to others. From JeanR to JeanW to Irene -- I've already forgotten the name of the designer of this style - Wes Wilson? I think that's right. You'd think if the name is Wilson, I'd be able to remember that....
and Irene's mail often comes with an extra...
Feeling a little down because of the smoky skies from Canadian forest fires, I stopped into a post office I passed along the way.
It was empty. Not a soul in sight.
“Hello,” I called.
Silence.
“Anyone here?”
“Hold on, I’m coming . . .” Out from the back walked a clerk. “What can I do for you?” she asked.
“I need some stamps.”
“Well, you came to the right place.”
She opened a drawer and pulled out some sheets.
“Got any Elvis?” I asked.
“Not in years.”
“I miss Elvis . . .”
“You and everyone else.”
“How about the Marvin Gaye?”
“Nope.”
“Jimi Hendrix?”
“Sorry.”
“Paul Newman?”
“No. But this is what I do have,” she said as she rifled through the sheets, calling stamps out as she went.
“Roy Lichtenstein . . .”
“One of my wife’s favorites. I’ll take it.”
“Pony cars . . .”
“Love those cars. One day, I’m gonna drive across the country in a ’65 Mustang—you watch.”
Like she’d be around to see it.
“Toni Morrison . . .”
“Just reread Song of Solomon. Even better the second time. I’ll take it.”
“Pete Seeger . . .”
“Little pink houses.”
She looked up, confused.
“Wait,” I said. “Wrong song. That’s Mellencamp. The Pete Seeger one is little boxes made of ticky tacky.”
She asked, “You want the stamp or not?”
“Absolutely…”
Back she went to the other stamps. “Ernest J. Gaines . . .”
Suddenly, I felt overwhelmed by a need to connect the dots.
“Yes! The Autobiography of Miss Jean Pittman. Not to be confused with The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Which was not written by Ernest Gaines. I can’t remember who wrote Brodie. But Maggie Smith was in the movie. Cicely Tyson was in Pittman. Got any of her stamps?”
“Who?”
“Cicely Tyson.”
“Nope, but how about Nancy Reagan?”
“Are you kidding me? Do I look like a Reagan voter?”
“Can’t give these stamps away . . .”
“Everyone just says no?”
I got a little chuckle out of her on that one. And wound up buying two more sheets of stamps: women rowing and Eugenie Clark. That’s the great scuba diver, people. She was known as “the shark lady”.
Walked out with over $76 worth of stamps. And feeling a little better. Not sure why.
Maybe it’s the healing power of stamps—or maybe it’s because I got that clerk to laugh.
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