Stamps

Childhood in Kentucky during the 50's was pretty much straight forward.  You woke up...went to the bathroom...got dressed...a bowl of cereal...then to the great outdoors.  At least this was true during the three months of summer vacation.  The weather cooperated on most days, and you could participate in all kinds of neighborhood adventures.  On rainy days you might still play outside...get soaked...and jumps around in all those puddles of water.  Now on some days that contained thunder and lighting you needed to stay indoors, and go to plan B.   Here is one example :

A beginning collector it was stated.  Led by the Cub Scouts, followed at end by the Brownies and  well dressed neighborhood kids betwixt, you marched into plan B.  It even showed the playful dog rising to the occasion.  What more could you ask for in a plan B... 4300 spaces for stamps... more than 2500 pictures...world maps...and descriptions of each country... wow.  Good old Abe [born in Kentucky], honest George, and our friends to the north, are shown on the stamps carried above.

The back of the album continued the promises.  Stamp collecting brings fun and knowledge...even a couple of foreign languages were shown on these stamps.

 Let's get this plan B going.  Bring on the stamps......

 Wait a minute, you say it has stopped raining...back to plan A it is.

Childhood Collections

Uncle Gene had a great way of telling stories.  He often provided first hand illustrations to help communicate the often broad scope of his adventures.  Serving during the Koren War, he told many of his "army stories" giving first hand accounts of driving tanks and the like, which of course filled my attention span.  He had a collection of patches which he would present with a story, describing its origin and activity, often leaving my questions yet to be answered.  His military patch collection become one of my childhood favorites.  The following patch [shoulder sleeve insignia] caught my attention having recently rediscovered this childhood collection :

No stories arose from the many memories pertaining to this collection, so I had to check a few of my "adult" references.

The 3rd Armored Cavalry it turned out to be.  A regular Army unit on active duty with Headquarters at Fort Bliss, Texas.  My reference read "The green color and trumpet commemorate the original green facing of the uniform and its gold trumpet insignia (1846)".   The motto is recorded as coming from General Winfield Scott after seeing the Regimental colors raised over a captured stronghold... "Brave Rifles! Veterans! You have been baptized in fire and blood and have come out steel."

I can't imagine how Uncle Gene could have missed such a story, but this childhood collection is still telling them.


My reference : Shoulder Sleeve Insignia of The U.S. Army 1946 - 1989, by Richard W. Smith, first published 1978. (p. 12)