Friends of the Western Philatelic Library

This is a repeat of the article from our last issue, because the need is still great.

Note the new mailing address for FWPL and the Western Philatelic Library PO Box 7063, Redwood City, CA 94063.

Bob Gordon of San Francisco is the new editor for the Bay Phil, the quarterly newsletter for members and friends of the library. Bob promises a more upto- date layout in full color, and the Board promises more transparency.

Volunteers are needed to make the library more accessible to area collectors.

Contact Roy Teixeira at camoes@comcast.net if you have a few hours each month to keep the library open. The WPL is in its own building in Redwood City at 3004 Spring St. Their normal hours are posted on their web site: www.fwpl.org or call 650-306-9150 for info.

Nevada Stamp Study Society

A complete archive of each issue of the NSSS newsletter, Post Boy, published from 1977 to present is available on the NSSS web site:
You can view or download every issue. It is a wonderful way to share the society’s rich history. It is also a good use of the web site — all too often, stamp societies and show committees lose track of the pictures, stories and people who made up their group activities over the years.

The Nevada Stamp Study Society meets on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of each month: 9 AM for trading, meeting starts at 10 AM, at Silverada Estates Clubhouse, 2301 Oddie Blvd., Reno.

Summer Activities from our Northern Neighbors

This summer brought PIPEX to Portland, OR and SEAPEX to Seattle, WA, both very successful shows with a lot of participation by our CNCPS club members.

We have invited our Northern Neighbors to join us over the next six months at Filatelic Fiesta in San Jose this November and WESTPEX in Burlingame next April.

Sequoia Stamp Club

The Sequoia Stamp Club meets the Second and Fourth Tuesdays at 7:05 PM in the Redwood City Community Activities Building (where PENPEX is held). Visitors are welcome and there are refreshments served! Their Club Program Oct Schedule is posted on their web site and published in their newsletter Stamp Chatter. The Fourth Quarter Stamp Chatter contains an important notice about the PENPEX Silent Auction lots to be submitted by Sequoia members: Jim Mosso has announced that all lots for the PENPEX Silent Auction need to be submitted by the end of October. Due to the large number of lots that are entered into the auction, he needs time to process the items.

Everyone can participate as a bidder/buyer during the PENPEX show. Sequoia member David Abrahams recently received his 50-year pin from APS. The Sequoia Stamp Club has a youth program. “Stamps R Us,” supported by members Richard Coleman and Kjell Enander along with donations from many members of the club. Youth are signed up at PENPEX, so if you know of a youth that needs to get started in stamp collecting, check it out at PENPEX! They signed up 10 youth last year.

WESTPEX

Marketing and Bourse Chair Bill Dwyer has come up with another fascinating theme for 2018 WESTPEX:

California Declares War on Squirrels 1918

“In April 1918, as American doughboys faced down the Germans in France, California’s schoolchildren were enlisted to open a new Western Front. “We have enemies here at home more destructive, perhaps, than some of the enemies our boys are fighting in the trenches,” state horticulture commissioner George H. Hecke warned in an impassioned call-up for “School Soldiers.” He exhorted children to do their part for Uncle Sam by organizing “a company of soldiers in your class or in your school” and marching out to destroy their foe: “the squirrel army.”

This children’s crusade was part of Squirrel Week, a seven-day frenzy in which California tried to kill off its ground squirrels. The state’s farmers and ranchers had long struggled to decimate the critters (also known as Otospermophilus beecheyi), which were seen as pests and a source of pestilence, particularly the bubonic plague. The burrowing foragers—not to be confused with tree squirrels—devoured an estimated $30 million worth of crops annually, about $480 million in current dollars.” [From an article by Dave Gilson, November 29, 2016.]

This should be fun! Will Stan Turrini make an appearance in a squirrel costume?

Board admitted two new members, Gordon Eubanks and Stanley Fong. Acting Chairman of WESTPEX, Clyde Homen, has declared that he is a candidate to become Chairman, filling the vacancy left by Ed Jarvis’ retirement. Nestor Nunez has agreed to take over the Treasurer duties from Bill Barlow, who has asked for relief after many years of service.

The 50-member WESTPEX Committee of volunteers is gearing up to make another memorable stamp show experience April 27-28, 2018. Don’t miss it!

San Jose Stamp Club/ Filatelic Fiesta Filatelic Fiesta is coming November 11-12!

There is new leadership on the Show Committee. Jessica Rodriguex has been named Chair of the Show Committee, and her youthful vigor is just what the show needs, since it is held in the heart of Silicon Valley.

The San Jose Stamp Club’s web site: www.sanjosesc.com has more information about the SJSC’s Filatelic Fiesta

Fellow Collectors: First, I hope the fires stayed away from everyone’s stamp collection. My home security is not for theft but for fire. The possible thief wouldn’t know the straw from the chaff and wouldn’t have time to take it all. The fire would burn it all.

With that said, it’s time to gear up for shows. East Bay will just be over, but SACAPEX, Filatelic Fiesta and PENPEX are in the next six weeks. All are worth going to.

Next, the dark days of winter, I feel, are the times to mount stamps, to organize covers and to winter-clean the stamp closet or shelves. It is the time to draft/organize exhibits and to prepare want lists. It is the time to set aside extras for the youth tables at the spring or summer shows.

Late fall and winter is the time of the year to be thankful for our hobby and for the joy it brings us, to be of good cheer with family and friends and to set goals (resolutions) for the next year.

Best Wishes for a wonderful holiday season with family and friends,

Larry Crain

Well, the answer is you and me, of course. However, there are many yous and many mes. We collect for many reasons, but are we fundamentally different from the non-collectors?

Maybe, or yes because we are savers; we are not use-once-and-replace people. We hang on to remembrances of the past, scrapbookers, so to speak, who value what we find and what might find next. We add to our collections or add collections, appreciating the search as much as the acquisition.

We don’t follow the crowd to get the fashion of the moment, because there are so many fashions available in stamp collecting that we shop in a superstore of collections: many countries, many topicals, many specialties with any country, many non-postage philatelic collectibles, etc. There are many paths to many hours of enjoyment.

Collectors within the council area have specialties which they show-and-tell to the rest of us. For example, from Redding, Bob Grosch’s Boston negative cancels, from San Francisco, Vesma Grinfeld’s Latvia, from Sacramento, Joe Ross’ revenues, from the Redwood Empire, Dennis Hassler’s many presentations, from Reno Stan Cromwell’s German, from Fremont, Henry Marquez’ Peru, or from Southern Oregon, Nancy Swan’s neatly-crafted exhibits – and there are many more of us with many more collections.

I am privileged to be among us collectors. I am privileged to be able to learn philatelic facts and/or historical lessons from many I have met in the Council: David McNamee, Victor Ivashin, Kristin

Introduce a Fellow Collector to your next Club Meeting. The hobby grows richer when we expand our social contacts and friendships.