No, Santa Claus IN is NOT a joke; it is a destination for covers to be mailed from, and has been for many years. Same is true of Christmas Florida, where the postmaster also added religious and secular themed cachets (rubber stamper). SCI is an occasional FD city for secular Christmas stamps from USPS; and it also where one is most likely to find FDs of Christmas seals. all are philatelically inspired
David
I am especially fond of "home made" hand-drawn covers, the homier the better.
Round-robin clubs/exchanges evoke that slower time ...
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey (who has gotta get his PostXing gig moving again)
Santa Claus, Indiana is an interesting place. Camped out there for a few days in Rudolph's Camp Ground! Alot of interesting sites to see around the area as well not all dealing with Santa Claus, such as historical sites relating to Abraham Lincoln.
stumbled on a SCI cover on eBay this morning
it is because it's got connections coming and going, plus the matching cachet, plus Clara's Red Cross connection... it all works
I didn't know that homes could catch Tuberculosis!
What would seal the deal for me was a tied Christmas seal (pun intended!)
Here is a bit more digging into what The Hoard had in store for me. A lot was in various stages of (disarrayed) organization. If you see any parts you'd like to see more of in Stage 3 ("Interesting Bits") let me know and I might be able to reveal more details then. Probably launched later this week as I am much more clear lately on what I'm keeping and will start to post more for sales/trading.
As mentioned elsewhere, my source began in the mid-1930s as a little girl with pen pals that grew worldwide. Here's the earliest covers I've found the oldest being from Santa Claus Indiana (to my U.S. friends - is that real or a joke?) in 1935 with a 1936 from British Guiana and 1935 and 1937 from New Zealand.
A couple finds make me think they would run down to the post office on the day a new issue came out, buy the stamp and get it postmarked by the P.O. that same day, then send it to a pen pal on a homemade FDC (e.g. the 1937 New Zealand Coronation cover).
She apparently had a couple hundred childhood pen pals who lasted into young adulthood and beyond but I didn't get many - I think they were probably in the many boxes her husband said he threw out after she died and the basement got flooded shortly afterwards. This is about it for covers - this box, a stack of about 50 primarily U.S. "professional" cachet FDCs and a couple page-holders with more loose covers as shown.
She also was part of a lot of 1-to-1 exchanges and some circuits. I found a lot of glassines with different names of individuals and "clubs" but I threw out most of the glassines (not the stamps of course!) as they used every square inch to write on them. Looks like she would send about 100 different Canadian stamps to someone who would keep what they wanted, add an equal amount from their own country, and forward it in a chain.
Your comments are welcome.
re: Stage 2 of The Hoard ("The Components") - Part A: Where It All Began & The Covers
No, Santa Claus IN is NOT a joke; it is a destination for covers to be mailed from, and has been for many years. Same is true of Christmas Florida, where the postmaster also added religious and secular themed cachets (rubber stamper). SCI is an occasional FD city for secular Christmas stamps from USPS; and it also where one is most likely to find FDs of Christmas seals. all are philatelically inspired
David
re: Stage 2 of The Hoard ("The Components") - Part A: Where It All Began & The Covers
I am especially fond of "home made" hand-drawn covers, the homier the better.
Round-robin clubs/exchanges evoke that slower time ...
Cheers,
/s/ ikeyPikey (who has gotta get his PostXing gig moving again)
re: Stage 2 of The Hoard ("The Components") - Part A: Where It All Began & The Covers
Santa Claus, Indiana is an interesting place. Camped out there for a few days in Rudolph's Camp Ground! Alot of interesting sites to see around the area as well not all dealing with Santa Claus, such as historical sites relating to Abraham Lincoln.
re: Stage 2 of The Hoard ("The Components") - Part A: Where It All Began & The Covers
stumbled on a SCI cover on eBay this morning
re: Stage 2 of The Hoard ("The Components") - Part A: Where It All Began & The Covers
it is because it's got connections coming and going, plus the matching cachet, plus Clara's Red Cross connection... it all works
re: Stage 2 of The Hoard ("The Components") - Part A: Where It All Began & The Covers
I didn't know that homes could catch Tuberculosis!
What would seal the deal for me was a tied Christmas seal (pun intended!)