Delaney is a stamp collector, so she always checks the mail for new and interesting additions. A few days ago, she found one that was printed right onto the envelope. “Mommy,” she asked, “why would somebody want an envelope with the stamp already on it?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess it saves a little bit of time licking stamps.”
Surprised, she asked, “Why would anybody want to lick a stamp?!”
Oh. The post office changed over to sticker stamps years ago, and none of my children have ever had to lick a stamp or even thought that such a thing was ever done. I still think of them as “new”. For just a minute, I felt… old. It was quite a blow, since I had recently been pondering the link between babies and eternal youth. I suppose children are more apt to provide opportunities to grow in humility, though.
So, yes. Once upon a time, long, long ago, we had to lick our stamps. Barbaric, I know, but there you have it.
Sticker stamps, computers, internet, DSL instead of dial-up, CD’s and DVD’s…there are things we think of as “new”, while our children have never known (or don’t remember) life without. Kinda makes me feel “old” too, though I know I am not! And if I am not, then you can’t be either, because I will be where you are in 2 years!!! Love you!
Hey! I am “old” too. I remember having rolls and rolls of stamps to lick. I think the sticker stamps are harder to collect unless they are stuck to something already. Thanks for a memory! I’ll have to break out the old stamp collections to show the kiddos.
The “feeling old” syndrome got me the first time when I was teaching school and we would be talking about something in history and I’d mention that I remembered that event – “Oh – Mrs. B! You were alive then?” It hit me again last week when I was subbing high schoolers and I mentioned something within the past twenty years but no one the class had heard of it. As my son often says to me – “Yeah Mom – tell us about how the pyramids were built!” Ugh! lol.