Blog Archives
Google Maps Street View is kind of neat
When I first discovered Google Maps’ Street View, I was not impressed. I saw it as an invasion of privacy. Still do. However, that has not prevented me from using it for my own personal needs. Hypocritical? Probably. Nonetheless. It’s the world we live in. lol
I recently endeavoured to find all the homes that I had ever lived in. What an interesting project.
The following is the home that my parents were living in, in 1955 when I was born. It was my mom’s parents’ home in Kingsville, Texas, all the way up to the mid-1990s:
This is the home in Kingsville, Texas, that we lived in ca. 1956 to 1960. At the right side of the house you see a somewhat pointed roof. That’s the living room, and there is a row of windows under the eaves. Birds would always fly into those windows, cracking the windows and killing themselves in the process.
When my dad got a promotion with Missouri Pacific Railroad, we moved to Palestine, Texas, ca. 1959. This is where we lived until my dad killed himself in January 1961. It took me forever to find this home because no one remembered the address. I finally found a death certificate online which had the address of the home. Imagine 55 years of not knowing the address where you lived when your dad died.
The following is where we lived in Brigham City, Utah, after my mom remarried. I lived here until December 1965 when I was shipped off to Kingsville, Texas, to live with my paternal grandparents.
My wise old grandmother’s house in Kingsville, Texas. I lived here from December 1965 to August 1973 when I went off to college at Texas A&M University:
I helped plant those two Texas live oaks in the Spring of 1967. Nice to see that they are still there. You can see storm shutters on the windows. Granddad and I installed those after Hurricane Beulah had destroyed Kingsville in September 1967. Our house escaped with just shingles torn off the roof, although we lost the two trees that my Great Horned Owl and the Screech Owls lived in. I was so sad. Granddad built that house in 1937, and I can assure you that they don’t build them like that nowadays. By the way, I intensely disliked mowing that lawn twice a week. Explains why I’ve never had a grass lawn.
Welcome to the Halls of History!
Welcome to my newest series! Not new to me, just new to my WordPress friends. This series combines two of my lifelong interests, philately and history.
Scott #2384 - 1932 Packard
My interest in philately (collecting stamps) began as a Cub Scout in Brigham City, Utah. I was eight or nine, whatever the earliest age is to be a Cub Scout. Every time I joined a Cub Scout Den, though, the Den would promptly collapse and fold. It took six or seven times, but eventually I learned. Never completed Scouting. I did stay with philately, so I do thank the Scouts for that!
My interest in history also began at an early age. My high school senior English teacher, Mrs. Edith Head (but not that Edith Head!) nurtured it along while we were studying Gilgamesh, Shakespeare, Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Wordsworth, e.e. cummings, etc.
Scott #3188h - Ford Mustang
Philately makes a great family event because it encompasses so many things of interest to so many people. You can collect all postage stamps of a country, or you can specialize, collecting just stamps that show animals, or birds, or dogs, or architecture, or music, or film and television, or people. You can even specialize to the extent that you collect just one person, say Benjamin Franklin. He’s on postage stamps of many countries throughout the world and was the first Postmaster General of the United States Post Office, established on July 26, 1775, by the Second Continental Congress. In other words, the United States Post Office is older than the United States itself!
Postage stamps of the world are catalogued and referenced using the Scott catalog, and I’ll include those catalog numbers with the stamps. That way, if you or someone in your family (like a young Cub Scout!) want to get a start in philately, all your Scout (boy or girl) needs to do is reference the Scott catalog number.
In my Halls of History series, we’ll look at the postage stamps of the United States and use them to study history in its many forms — its events, people, projects, buildings, creations, art, music, and more. I hope you enjoy it.
Coming up next, I’ll look at the first postage stamp of the United States, issued in 1847.
Gather round, enjoy yourself and philately, and perhaps learn something new. I do every day.
This post approved by 
