I took a great interest in stamps.
Which magazines were they that I read
that had advertisements for cancelled stamps?
I don't see those ads any more.
Foreign stamps
Animal stamps
President stamps
Flower stamps
Bags of stamps
Too young to know they were virtually worthless
I ordered stamp after stamp
bag after bag
book after book.
I would save my allowance
and when I had enough nickels
I would order more stamps.
The stamps I bought
I ruined
by using Scotch tape to mount them in my albums.
Even though I was warned,
for some reason I still didn't know any better.
When the mailman walked up
(they were mailmen then, not letter carriers,
and they walked instead of driving a jeep)
I would rush outside
to see if there were any new stamps for me.
Times have changed.
Maybe kids still order bags of stamps
but I don't see any sign of it.
And my generation?
Still eager,
we subscribe to services
that will send a message
to our cell phones
whenever a registered sex offender
moves into a house within our zip code.
Computers have vastly improved our lives.
No need to run to the mailman any more.
I don't remember throwing out all those stamps.
Things just seem to go away.