Posted on 12/08/2004 12:21:57 AM PST by torqemada
Saturday after Thanksgiving is the traditional day to purchase stamps for my annual Christmas card mailing... [snip] So, shortly before noon on that most recent post-turkey day, I sauntered into a neighborhood "U.S. Postal Store," [snip] and headed for the stamps-only section. I quickly found a packed wall of display racks offering a panoply of first-class postage devoted to the various elements of the year-end holiday season, specifically:
1) Christmas, featuring colorful, contemporary designs of Santa Claus with an array of inanimate, secular Yule symbols;
2) Kwanzaa, with not just one but two stamps promoting a totally fabricated "harvest holiday" for African-Americans, [snip]
3) Hanukkah, the ancient Jewish festival that marks the rededication of the temple wrested from the savage control of Syria's King Antiochus IV; and
4) Eid (Arabic for "festival"), a two-part, post-Ramadan feasting period for Muslims.
Beholding such philatelic diversity in a simple American post office truly is a multicultural moment that a few weeks earlier would have reduced John Kerry to tears of joy.
Something, however, was missing. "Where," I asked the attending postal clerk, "are the traditional Madonna & Child stamps?" (Postal authorities for years have issued both nonreligious and religious commemorative stamps for this holiday season, to satisfy equally those citizens who groove exclusively on office-partying and those who quaintly still revere the birth of Christ.)
"Those stamps," said the clerk with an odd, ecumenical smile, are here in this drawer, "under the counter." She slowly pulled open the discreet trove and withdrew samples of the Virgin Mary and her Baby Jesus for my fascination, as if they were products of an eccentric artist with copious red body hair who works at night, alone in the P.O. attic.....
Read the rest of the article at: http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=5906
(Excerpt) Read more at humaneventsonline.com ...
AMEN!
That's ridiculous. One would have to be a toddler not to be aware the Madonna and Child stamps are customary. As to how the post office deals, I've been in many across the nation and they always ask what design I want.
I wouldn't have trouble believing an isolated instance but the poster chose the first lie about "not knowing" a religious stamp existed that cast the rest of the post into question.
Better yet, email your Christmas greetings.
I wasn't aware that the "Postal Service" even existed anymore.
Are they the folks who drop off 2 pounds of junk advertisements at my house every day?
LOL
Chill out.
Funny. My post office has all the "other" religious stamps on display, but no Christian themes in sight. I wouldn't assume every Post Office is like those in your area.
Who decided the real meaning of Christmas?
I may be completely wrong about this.
But....I think the meaning of Christmas may, possibly have something to do with the first six letters in the word. Christ
<<<<<<<<<,
That's funny.
Where in my posts did you find reference to: stamps "on display" or Christian themes "in sight?"
I'm a bit suspicious of the story myself. I just went to the post office two days ago, and the Madonna and Child stamp was prominantly displayed along with the others.
Interesting. We might be talking about two different things. When I purchase stamps at my Post Office, I stand in line until a clerk is available. Then I ask the clerk if I may look at the commemorative stamps, since the stamps in the drawers are the stamps which are for purchase.
Are you saying that stamps on display in your Post Office are the actual stamps for purchase? If you see a page of stamps on display which you like, then a clerk will unlock the case and get it for you?
If my Post Office has a place where they hang posters of current commemorative stamps, the posters must be lost somewhere among the clocks, cameras, relevant mailing deadlines, Missing Child Posters and shipping regulations.
Perhaps they were out of the Madonna/Child stamps in their drawer and had to get more. (I've had that kind of thing happen when buying non-seasonal stamps.)
What!? No Festivus stamps?
No Mithra or Feast of Saturnalia stamps either.
Yes, the stamps on display are for purchase. Many hang on a pegboard display and many are special edition collector sets. The display is 4'x8'. You can reach out and take them to a regular clerk or go to a register where stamps, postcards, and shipping supplies are sold.
Merry Christmas, Fintan. Lovely stamp. :)
Mr. RK is usually the stamp buyer in our house, but one time I had to get them for whatever reason. They never asked what kind I wanted. I also didn't know that there were special Christmas stamps until last Christmas. Heck, I never even realized there were special "Love" stamps for wedding invites until about a year ago. But then again, no one who knows me would call me "observant". LOL
I'm 47. Actually, I did not know. What struck though when I was leaving is the clerk who waited on me only showed me the stamps I bought while the other clerk showed the woman a couple different sets. As long as they did not try to pawn off on me the Muslim stamps.
Gripes, I went to the post office, axed for a book of stamps with the baby Kwanza and they didn't have any!
Uh-huh. And that picture will be on the new 48 cent first class postage stamp which will cover the cost of lost business.
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