I am not sure exactly when Dad started collecting stamps, I am only sure of when I became aware of it which was in the late 90's. I had already been living in NY a year or two when Dad first told me about his stamp collection. By this time I had figured out he was what I like to call a hobbyist - a collectors collector. For Dad it was about having new interests as much as the amazing things that went with that interest. With anything that caught his fancy he went towards it full force.
However, like many of his collections he did it with a slight twist. He did not necessarily worry about the value of the stamps he collected, but that they were interesting. One of his best friends (Brad) and he would send old stamps to each other through the mail - essentially rendering the stamps valueless - but with themes. It was like a game they played. They would buy old unused stamps that were interesting or pretty that could be bought at face value or even below, but could still be sent through the mail at face value.
Then there were the rules. First, all the stamps had to add to the appropriate postage for that size letter, you weren't suppose to go over, or if you did only by a cent or two. Then all the stamps had to "go together" - they had to have some sort of consistency or theme. Some were easy, like Christmas stamps, or stamps of famous New York City landmarks, etc. Others were more subtle and required more thought and planning. He did more than one for me of strong brazen famous women. The final rule of this postage game Dad played was that the stamps needed to be roughly in a rectangle or square, you weren't suppose to have one extra floating to the side. If its not obvious from my discription, this process is not easy. It takes forethought and creativity and a wee bit of math.
Of course I thought he was nuts. At first I thought it was a passing fancy, often his hobbies ebbed and flowed with his new and old interests competing for his free time. But after a few years of every letter ending with "keep the stamps" or "save the envelope" and often him calling to see if a letter or package arrived so we could discuss the stamps, I knew it was one that would last. I am nothing but a good daughter and since my letters and notes from Dad were often all I'd get from him on a holiday or birthday I treasured them like they were gifts, and would have even if they had not been sent through the mail with such stylish stamps. So needless to say, I have them all.
I also bought him stamps over the years. Whenever I traveled Dad usually asked for currency as his gift since another one of his collections was of foreign currency. When I went to London for my 23rd birthday I added stamps to his loot I brought back. While walking through the Portobello Market with my friend we came upon a stamp vendor and we found a series of King Henry and his six wives. Each had a stamp of their own. I thought they were hilarious and perfect. So did my friend, he bought himself a set as well. Dad also enjoyed them, even if I was poking fun of him.
As I mentioned, I was already living in NYC when Dad took up this hobby. It did not take Dad long to suggest I go to the next New York Stamp show for him. Dad had a funny way of bringing things up, "You know, they have a really big stamp show there in New York...." I was in my very early 20's and not prone to attending stamp shows of my own free will, but I did actively go to many cultural and art events in the city. After some bartering and haggling I agreed to go to the show for him. There was a particular stamp that Dad was after that was hard to find. It was not an US stamp so not one he meant to send through the mail, this was purely a stamp he was collecting.
It was the famous nude done by Fancesco Goya. The nude had caused quite a sensation when originally painted (it is often referred to as the first nude in history with pubic hair depicted on a woman) and caused another sensation when made into a stamp. The stamp itself is not that large as far as pictures of naked women go. It's about an inch and a half by and inch probably. Well, regardless of its size, I was about to find out that this stamp is the equivalent of a nudie mag to the nerdy stamp collector. I was no stranger to my father collecting of naked lady pictures and art, so it did not phase me nor bother me when he asked. I was amused, because he said it was hard to get a hold of and he wanted it to show off to his other stamp collecting buddies. 
I enlisted a friend of mine to attend the stamp convention with me and in the early afternoon we set off to attend. I was in my early 20's, and it was either spring or early summer. I was wearing a sundress and sandals, my long blond hair in a pony tail. Well, you could count the women in attendance on one hand and all were at least a few decades older than me. There were two types of men, old of the either grumpy or charming variety, and or young and awkward - the kind of men who never make eye contact. Basically, the kind of people you envision would be stamp collectors. A young 22 year old girl not so much. My presence alone set off a buzz in the convention hall and just in case I was reading to much into it, my friend (also male) leaned over to me several times to make mocking and embarrassing comments about the looks of curiosity I was getting. And this was before I started approaching the tables that carried non-united states stamps to issue my request: the famous Goya nude stamp.
The reaction was hilarious. For some I might as well as have asked for the most grotesque pervy porn, they were appalled and wanted me to move along as quickly as possible. Others were tickled just beyond themselves. Never in all their wildest dreams had they imagined a young pretty girl would be at their table asking for the Goya nude. Some men outright blushed many shaded of red. Many had to admit that while they knew and enjoyed the Goya nude very much, they did not have it. A beautiful stamp! They'd say.
Finally I scored and found a vendor that had several of the stamp and I bought as many as I could with what Dad had allotted for the purchase. The vendor even whipped out a magnifying glass for me, chuckling to himself the whole time. Later on when I called Dad to tell him he was as pleased with the successful purchase as the story that now went with it. My fathers famous giggle is one that I know everyone will always miss, and one that we all probably prided ourselves on when we could evoke. Well I got a lot of giggles out of that story, for many years whenever retold.
While Dad's stamp collecting is just one of the dozens of collections he acquired over the years, it is one that I have a lot of nostalgia associated with it, possibly because it is one that engaged in communication with me and when he started sending more things in the mail to me, or maybe simply from that those few stories of me participating in the collecting and the humor that went along with it. I am currently organizing the bulk of them to sell and even found someone who does a similar game with them and sells the stamps in sets with matching stationary. And while none are worth a fortune, they are gorgeous and interesting and it is just one of the many examples of my father giving new life to the forgotten. The stamps had value to him, even after sent through the mail, in part just for existing, for traveling, for representing the past.
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