Raise your hand if you were a stamp collector as a child. I was fascinated by stamps, but then I grew up to be an artist so I was always drawn to visual things. But there was also the fascination with knowing these little scraps of paper had come from foreign lands. It gave me a connection to places I'd never go, but as a child it helped to make the world a bit smaller.
Click on image to see it larger.
Now, the prompt for Sepia Saturday this week is playing marbles. Well, I don't have any photos of people with marbles. I have a few where the people look like they've lost their marbles, but I don't think that's what the prompt was hoping for.
I had a nice bag of marbles as a child, but they're long gone and that makes me sad. I can close my eyes and still remember my favorite purees. The purees were always my favorite because of the way light played with them.
A few years ago I bought some marbles in a small shop in Columbia, California. Columbia is a California State Park that captures a time long gone in the Gold Country. Paved streets where once dirt was king and kids played marbles in the afternoon sun. Seeing those marbles in the store made me want to collect them again. So I bought around seven lovely purees of various sizes, brought them home, and put them in a see-through container. This way I'm sure I'll never lose my marbles. I always know where they are.
My stamp collection? I still have it tucked safely on the top shelf of a closet. Next to it sits a shoebox full of stamps that never made it into the album. In fact, there's a box of stamps on my desk that are still attached to the torn paper from the envelopes they arrived on. They'll never make it into an album, and the box is nearly full, but it's almost automatic when I put them away for safe keeping. Hey, it's better than my old method which was to just tear them off and stick them in a drawer. I still find stamps in the oddest places. When I die they'll find stamps in probably every drawer in my house. I squirrel them away for no logical reason. But there you go. I'm squirrelly, but I've got my marbles in one place for anyone to see.
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Such a sweet post. I still tear stamps off envelopes automatically and once a year sending them to the Nursing Mothers Association so they can sell them to raise funds for their good work. I haven't got any marbles. I'd best get some.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great thing to do with. I've never heard of anything like this.
DeleteMy parents saved all their mail. During dark winter days, my sister and I soaked the stamps off the mail and glued them onto long cash register rolls. The long rolls were used as wallpaper on our rec room. Mainly, it kept us quiet. After my mother died and the house was for sale, we each kept a one foot square of the stamp wall for posterity.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you're in danger of ever losing your marbles. I loved your post
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I love the idea of this wallpaper! It makes me think of some old houses I've seen in ghost towns where the walls were covered with newspapers and magazine pages. Always something to read! Visitors must have loved your walls. I would have.
DeleteI have a stamp album. I've not opened it in about 35 years (or more). Hmm, going to go find it now.
ReplyDeleteWell hop to it! Easter weekend is the perfect time!
DeleteI collected stamps. I lost my marbles. I didn't find them again until I found paper that mentioned marbles. I haven't sold it yet, but then again... Someday it will. Great post.
ReplyDeleteOf course you collected stamps. You're a visual person who still is entranced with real mail.
DeleteI forgot to include a link to the ones I lost - and found. http://oldpaperart.blogspot.com/2011/06/vintage-marbles.html
ReplyDeleteYes! I remember this one. It's exactly why I love marbles. You've posting some beautiful pieces lately.
DeleteWhat a clever treatment of the prompt. I suspect I spent more time on my stamp collection than playing marbles. Lovely image.
ReplyDeleteI didn't like losing my marbles to some other kid so I was always hesitant to play. However, if I won THEIR marbles that was a different story.
DeleteI collect stamps now and use them all the time in collages and art. I am crazy for stamps. On the paper, off the paper -- I have never met a stamp i don't like. And if you want to clean things out I would LOVE some stamps -- and I'd put them to good use.
ReplyDeleteRight now I just enjoy looking at them. It's sort of like a button box.
DeleteWell by gosh & by golly, you were in my 'backyard' those few years ago. Columbia State Park in Calif. is a quick 20 minute drive from my where I live just east of Sonora, & I've been to the Park several times - perusing all the auld tyme shops & eating marvelous meals at the City Hotel there.
ReplyDeleteWell, dang and tarnations! I should have just hollered "Hellooooooo!" I too love the little town. Love going to the Gold Country.
DeleteOh yes, stamps, marbles, whip and top, none of those i-Pad things when I was young.
ReplyDeleteOh, I got the marbles. A big jar full that belonged to my dad. And stamps too, sorted, unsorted, mint, blocks, sets, etc. because someone convinced me that they would be valuable some day. Sometimes I get a parcel from an eBay seller that I recognize as a former stamp collector as they use dozens of old stamps for postage. About the only real value anymore. Still I attribute my love of geography and history to those early years I spent studying stamps of the world.
ReplyDeleteI am marble green with envy! And I too have noticed certain sellers use old stamps. I of course tear them off and put them in my stamp box.
DeleteI too have stamps in the closet except we call it a cupboard. I have them in albums, bags and boxes. I wish I could sell them.
ReplyDeletePerhaps there's an antique store that would take your collection and bulk sell the whole collection. I don't think there's much money to be made on ebay with them. Or give the collection to a local grade school. I'm sure the kids would enjoy them.
DeleteThis is me not raising my hand. No stamps. No marbles either. But I'd pay a pretty penny to get my jacks back.
ReplyDeleteI still have my little bag of jacks. But if I had to quickly put my finger on them I'd be in real trouble. They're in the house, that's all I know.
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