The more I look at my vintage Ladybird collection, the more I see loads of hobbies that I just can't imagine today's children doing. I hope I'm wrong, but do kids today really do stamp collecting?
I remember trips to WH Smiths as a child on a Saturday with my parents where as a special treat I might be allowed a packet of stamps for my collection, or possibly just a new packet of stamp hinges if I needed some. After helping my mum clear out her house I even still have my old stamp albums in the cupboard!
In fact, just typing that above made me go and search them out and then waste spend quarter of an hour going through them and looking at my collection again.
Let's get back to the Ladybird book about Stamp Collecting though. Now, whether you were a childhood stamp collector or not, I have to say that this book isn't exactly one to inspire you. Yes, there are some interesting facts about how the postal system came to be, how stamps were first "invented" here in Great Britain and lots of pages of pictures of stamps from all over the world, but it doesn't exactly trill the reader if you know what I mean.
Pictures of stamps on a dull yellow coloured background and a couple of pages of terms used in stamp collecting might be useful if you're in to that kind of things, but to be totally honest my own albums seem much more interesting! It is amazing, and a tad geekily sad, to think back to just how excited I was to be a stamp collector in my youth. Then again I'm also a train spotter too…
It does all make me feel a bit sad that my kids might not experience the simple thrill of foreign stamps on an airmail letter when it comes through the door. As much as I love email, it does also take away some simple pleasures from life. And on that note it's time to go and finally write a proper handwritten letter to a dear friend.
If you have a collection of old Ladybird books then please feel free to join in with Ladybird Tuesday. There are no formal rules to follow, just leave a link to any post you write in the comments below and if you're feeling kind link back to my Ladybird Tuesday category here on Being Mrs C. Thank you!
I had a stamp book when I was little too – I’m not sure quite what happened to it but from memory it was a very full British page and lots of blank spaces for stamps from exotic sounding places!
I think the only overseas stamps I ever got in the post were from my dads friends in Germany and America. All the rest came in packets from Smiths!
Ooo I used to have a stemp book – mind you I never actually collected anything, I was given the collection and meant to add more but never didi – I remember spending hours looking at all the stamps though – like you say it’s quite sad to think it’s a dying hobby with children now x
Im amazed at how long Ive spent since digging out my collection looking through all the stamps Ive got. Actually quite fascinating – and a geography lesson too as some of the countries i have stamps for no longer exist as they did at the time. Ill definitely be hanging on to my collection and letting LMC and Master C have a look at it when theyre a bit older.