Somewhat amazingly, today's stamp celebrates one of the most shameful episodes in American history. The 3-cent stamp issued on October 15, 1948 says "Indian Centennial" followed by a list of five tribes—Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole - and then at the bottom, the statement "The Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma." So apparently, this is a …
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I ended yesterday's #stampoftheday post by asking "What were they thinking?" when they issued a stamp celebrating the forced relocation of Native Americans. Today, however, it's clear "what they were thinking" when the Post Office issued three "National Defense" stamps on October 16, 1940 (which is why the stamps are today's #stampoftheday). "They" - particularly President Franklin …
After a much needed heavy rain, today is a brilliant day here in New England. The trees are at their peak; the sky today was a brilliant blue; and the air tonight is clear but cold. It's beautiful but it's a poignant beauty because of the cooler temperatures, the soon-to-fall leaves, and the increasingly short …
What do you think of when you read the phrase "The Battle of White Plains"? While I know it's juvenile and also snarky, I think of a fight that involves a shopping mall, maybe two bargain hunters coming to blows at a Black Friday sale or, perhaps, over the last parking space in the (pre-COVID) holiday …
To paraphrase Freud, sometimes a stamp is just a stamp. In other words, I don't have a deeper meaning, family story, or strange connection for today's #stampoftheday, which is a 2-cent stamp issued on October 19, 1929 (ten days before the stock market crashed) celebrating the completion of a decades-long effort to improve navigation on …
It's hard to believe today, but once upon a time, the people running the U.S. Post Office invested in facilities that were supposed to speed up mail deliveries. Moreover, they celebrated those efforts, most notably in today's 4-cent #stampoftheday, which commemorated the opening of America's first automated post office in Providence, Rhode Island on October …
"The Mississippi Delta was shining like a National guitar," sings Paul Simon at the start of "Graceland," his marvelous 1986 song. "I am following the river, down the highway, through the cradle of the Civil War. I am going to Graceland, Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee." That road, presumably, was the Great River Road (GRR), which is …
When I started preparing this post, I thought that today's stamp was an innocuous offering that I had to include to continue my 185-day long streak of writing a daily #stampoftheday " piece. It's easy to see why I thought so little of this 7-cent airmail stamp, which was issued on October 22, 1960. The ever-useful …
Although my parents always voted (almost always, I think, for Democrats), they weren't political. They didn't work on campaigns, go to rallies or become involved in the civil rights or anti-war movements. And, with one exception, I never heard them speak highly of any national politician. The exception was Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic nominee for president …