Page 3 - Demo

On June 4, 2020, I happened to see a postage stamp online that I remembered from my days of collecting in the 1960s, but had completely forgotten about. It was a 3-cent 1948 issue commemorating the 100th anniversary of the poultry industry in the United States. Because I knew Lynn was sitting at her computer, and that she had a particular fondness for chickens, I pasted an image of the stamp into an email and sent it to her. The subject line read, %u201cA stamp I forgot about that you will like.%u201d It took a mere seven minutes for her to reply, %u201cIt%u2019s the very best stamp EVER!!!%u201d Over the next two weeks, an idea began to gel in my mind%u2014to collect a series of First Day Covers for the poultry stamp, then present them to Lynn as a surprise gift. Toward that end, on June 20, I contacted my covercollecting friend, Mark Goodson, to see if he had any duplicate chicken covers he%u2019d be willing to sell me. He did, but it took until midJuly before we were able to get together at his Ellettsville office. After perusing his extensive collection, I purchased sixteen of his extras.Next, I searched for additional covers from several on-line sources. These included eBay, HIP Stamp, Delcampe, James T. McCusker, Inc., and Whits Covers, where I%u2019d made purchases in the past. It didn%u2019t take long before I%u2019d accumulated a stack of about 50 different examples. Though unrelated to the chicken stamp, during my searching, I serendipitously came across covers cancelled in Chicken, Alaska. Immediately, I decided to purchase a few of them to complement the chicken-stamp covers. Then, I began noticing a variety of stamps from around the world featuring chickens and other poultry. Now, I felt I needed some of those as well, and bought a mixed batch of 50. It was all a very good start on an excellent collection.All along, I was trying to decide how to present the material to Lynn. That%u2019s when I realized the anniversary of our first meeting%u2014August 7, in Kendallville%u2014was coming up. So I prepared a cover for her, to be mailed from Chicken, Alaska. On July 30, I phoned the Post Office there to make sure I could mail them a selfaddressed stamped envelope to be cancelled and sent back to our home. Because the Post Office was located in such a tiny community, I expected to speak to the Postmaster, but someone else answered the phone. However, she was able to assure me that they could fulfill my request. I wrote some instructions on a Post-It, saying I%u2019d like the envelope cancelled in Chicken, Alaska on August 7, and it would be great if the Postmaster could sign it. Then I sent it off in a business-size envelope on July 31. It arrived back here two weeks later on August 14. After finding it in our mailbox, I rubbed it down with 70% isopropyl alcohol, something I did with all our mail, because we were in the midst of the 2020 Corvid-19 pandemic. Once cleaned, I handed the small white envelope to Lynn, After scrutinizing it carefully, she quickly realized there was a note inside. It read, %u201cThere is a special gift for you in the drawer under the darkroom enlarger.%u201d Needless to say, after unwrapping her present, she was quite pleased.PROLOGUE