The main #stampoftheday for May 5 is the 3-cent 1956 stamp issued to emphasize the importance of wildlife conservation in America. The first of three stamps with a similar theme, it showcases wild turkeys and was issued at the convention of the Wisconsin Federation of Stamp Clubs, in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.

As many people know, Benjamin Franklin proposed that turkey be the national symbol of America. In a letter to his daughter, he wrote, “For my own part I wish the Eagle had not been chosen the representative of our country. He is a bird of bad moral character. He does not get his living honestly…The turkey is a much more respectable bird, and…a true original native of America…He is besides, though a little vain and silly, a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his farm yard with a red coat on.”

Two bonus offerings. The first is 1938’s 11/2 cent stamp featuring Martha Washington that was issued as part of a series of American presidents from Martha’s husband to Calvin Coolidge, as well as Martha and Ben Franklin. The second is an 8-cent stamp from 1969 honoring the December 1968 Apollo 8 mission which was the first manned lunar orbital flight. This was with my dad’s collection but in a pile of first-day covers that he never mounted with the care he displayed with his earlier (pre-1960) collection.

And a bonus bonus offering is a cover from something called “Monspex ’62,” in Monsey, NY, where my family lived at the time. I have no idea what this is. Do you?