Thank you for your great stamp collecting story. The story line sounds very familiar. When I was young, growing up in Tennessee and Illinois, my favorite place to go was the stamp and album displays at my local Dime Store! I spent many hours there, just looking at the beautiful stamps.
I signed up for approvals with a NY firm called Globus Stamp Co. -- later on I also got approvals from H.E. Harris. There were stamp stores at the time, but none within walking or bicycling distance. I didn't really start hanging out at stamp stores, until I was a teenager, and I could go out on my own.
Your story brought back many fond memories of why I got into stamp collecting, and it re-enforces the EDUCATIONAL reason why EVERY AMERICAN KID should collect stamps.
