I am called Richard, I have been called many other things, but as there are ladies present here I will not repeat them..I am 80 years young, a father of two and grandfather of ten & a great grandfather of fifteen and still counting..I have been a collector for some 65 years, or should I say a hoarder of stamps for that length of time. In our house no stamp was thrown away unless it was damaged or I gave permission to get rid of it. When I retired at 70 we had to have a 3 bedroom apartment, my wife and I, plus my stamp accumulation ,150 albums, endless tea chests, shoe boxes, cigar boxes, you name it. Now with all thous of-springs there is not one that is interested in stamps, so I had to start and cut this down to size, Then I found that I was getting just as much pleasure from finding new homes for the collection and found a way to fill the hours of the time left to me. Netanya in Israel where I live is known as the riviera of Israel but amongst it's senior citizens it is called G-ds Waiting Room...We have our visa but we have to wait for the tickets and I have requested to take any stamps that I have left with me, so I can't go downstairs because they are not fireproof,,
So now you know my story, I was born in Poland, spent the years 39/46 under german & Russian occupation, lived in the UK until 1970 and I am now living in Israel 43 years.
I speak English, Polish.Russian & Hebrew
Once a week Londonbus & myself close ours-elf in my apartment & have a wee drop of the hard stuff and should any of you ever find yourselves in Netanya you are most welcome to join us, Just ask anyone where that crazy Richard lives...They will direct you to the local Cop Shop.
i love your story Richard, and especially you having found love in dispersal. I, too, have been culling all the non-essential things of my collections and trading, selling, giving away, although I sometimes find others who are doing the same and more essentials are added, at least temporarily.
David
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Good story and welcome, Richard! Among those dozens of progeny, none is interested in stamps? I face the same thing, with my nephews, their children, and my godchildren (my inheritors). I am the only collecting cousin in my generation, so I stand to inherit from three uncles' collections (one has already "bequeathed" his as a pre-inheritance) but now my windfall is just a delayed dilemma: What do *I* do with those stamps?
Welcome to Stamporama Richard! Very nice history you gave. I am so glad that you survived both the Nazi's & the Commie's. My ancestors also came from Poland, but they left in the early 20th Century, so they escaped the Hell that Poland bacame.
You will find that this is a friendly site. Have fun here. Ted
Hi Richard
What a great life you have lived, and are living. Thank you for sharing your wonderful story. This is a super site. Lots of friendly people and assistance when needed. Enjoy your stamping, and welcome to StampoRama.
Gro
They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Benjamin Franklin 25 Jun 2013 11:11:01am
re: I have arrived and to prove it I am here!!!!
Wow! What a great story! Wish I could visit Israel just so I could participate in one of the "hard stuff" session with you and londonbus. Bet you have a thousand and one stories!
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"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. -Edmund Burke"
I wish to denounce all knowledge of ever having visited this Golovacz/Richard/Polak fella and drinking hard stuff. hic! Not quite sure why he chose me for his make believe drinking partner when it is obviously clear to all here that I never touch a drop. hic!
Why, I have never even been to this guys house, maybe he doesn't even have any stamps and is just kidding you all on. hic ! Well, he doesn't fool me. hic !
It actually makes me quite angry when someone uses your name in vain. hic ! I think the next time I am in Netanya, I will try to find this guys house and give him what for. hic !
And there will be big trouble if he tries to offer me some of his superb Ballantine Whisky or those lovely Cold Singha Beers he keeps in his fridge. hic !
A Service Dog gives a person with a disability independence. Never approach, distract or pet a working dog, especially when (s)he is in harness. Never be afraid to ask questions to the handler (parent). 25 Jun 2013 05:06:06pm
re: I have arrived and to prove it I am here!!!!
Too funny! Great response.
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"Let's find a cure for Still's Disease, Breast Cancer and Canine Addison's Disease. We CAN find a cure and save lives!!"
Welcome Richard. By the responses above everyone has enjoyed your introduction. We are very happy to have you with us. If you have any problems with the website feel very free to contact me.
Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you All for this wonderful welcome and I will try to live up to it...I am sure there will be plenty of questions when I start listing and don't take to much notice of my friend he is not really a full double Decker but only a coach....hahaha
Richard
PS. by the way Golovacz in Russian means BIGHEAD
MAY YOU LIVE AS LONG AS YOU WANT...AND WANT AS LONG AS YOU LIVE!!!!!!
Bobienke, Bubele what are you doing here? I was told that this club was exclusive.....Oooops I forgot that you were the connected one. ...
Seriously Bob it's nice to see you here and we can compare our medication and then we can get a second opinion.......I am off to have forty winks and get up early for Saturday.
TTFN.....Richard
while there are other Scotch whiskys that I far prefer to Glenfiddich, i'm aghast you'd be subjecting it to the diluting effects of ice and missing an opportunity to capture its nose within a snifter.
let's hope MacFergus donna catch wind a this
that dram David
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"Save the USPS, buy stamps; save the hobby, use commemoratives"
Thank you for your welcome, 50 more years might be a bit much?.......I saw a man being interviewed on TV & he was over 120.. The interviewer asked him if he smoked or drunk alcohol and the man said...."of course I do, how else am I going to die?
A Service Dog gives a person with a disability independence. Never approach, distract or pet a working dog, especially when (s)he is in harness. Never be afraid to ask questions to the handler (parent). 27 Jun 2013 03:58:55pm
re: I have arrived and to prove it I am here!!!!
LOL - good answer!
My grandmother is 92 next week and she smokes like a steam engine!
My goal is 119, I'm not as good as Moses so I don't aim for 120
Kelly
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A Service Dog gives a person with a disability independence. Never approach, distract or pet a working dog, especially when (s)he is in harness. Never be afraid to ask questions to the handler (parent). 28 Jun 2013 12:23:42pm
re: I have arrived and to prove it I am here!!!!
I'm Jewish too. It's a running joke about me with 119. When I was a kid I was a troublemaker and one day one of the Rabbis at school (probably not even thinking) said "you'll be lucky if you make it to 119, you're no Moshe you know! " So rather than get mad I just took it and used it myself
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"Let's find a cure for Still's Disease, Breast Cancer and Canine Addison's Disease. We CAN find a cure and save lives!!"
David: There is great variety--just try and get it at the local outlet--all anybody carries is the 10 year (my favorite most of the time), and I can special order the Quarter Cask and Cask strength. I think anything beyond that is going to require a trip to Islay....
Fabulous introduction! I am 31 years young and would love nothing more than to come sit with you and hear some amazing stories - it sounds like you have a lot of them to tell! Too bad there are oceans between us! My collection did not start from anyone in the family, none of my relatives have taken up with stamp collecting but I was given a couple of GB albums as a gift! If you need an adopted granddaughter to pass stuff down to...I will be here for you!
Looking forward to many more entertaining posts from you!
They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -Benjamin Franklin 30 Jun 2013 02:46:16pm
re: I have arrived and to prove it I am here!!!!
place your cursor over the tab labeled "Home"
Click on where it says "Members Area"
click on edit member information
Go down to the Misc. section and click on upload picture
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"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. -Edmund Burke"
...or alternatively, you can wait until our next Beer and Whisky evening , tomorrow or Tuesday, and I will set you on the straight and narrow regarding pics, Photobucket, stamps and booze !!
Hi there, what a great story. So how are you going about to cut down on your extensive stamp collection?
I am from South Africa. I am part of the Bellville Philately Society. We realised that we are also running out of younger members and collectors in our area, so we are in the process of raising awareness by visiting local schools to get children involved. We are also looking at the opportunity of getting some of the schools in the poor communities involved and in the process get the kids interested in something more educational than hanging around in the streets after school.
Enjoy Israel - its one of the countries I am dreaming about visiting!
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. Mahatma Gandhi. 15 Jul 2013 10:00:09am
re: I have arrived and to prove it I am here!!!!
Love your story! Happy you got through this horrible nazi period! My grand father is 104 and still fit. He went through this war in occupied France (Normandy); not the right place to be in June 1944.
Happy to meet you and also very happy to know that you are in Israël. I'm a great fan of Israël stamps and have had precious help from this great guy called Londonbus1.
Thanks to those stamps of mine, I have decided to learn Hebrew. Starting the lessons in September in a group in Paris(just for my pleasure). Learning a new writing is very exciting!!I might ask for a few grammar help from you guys, never know!
This is a really great site, the best I've known so far! You can only enjoy it!
Daniel.
Hi Kiwi
By your ID I would guess that you have New Zealand connections... I thank you for your comments and invite you to join Londonbus and me for our weekly beer get together s you will be most welcome.
Richard
PS Wish your Grandfather from me That he should live as long as he wants to and want to as long as he lives...
I was fortunate enough to spend three summers during my teen years with my grandparents and other relatives in Germany. It was an experience I will never forget. I would like to relate a story that I learned during my first summer there.
My mother was 6 year's old and living in a small village in Germany at the time the war broke out. My grandfather and his brothers served (drafted) in the German army, where four of his brothers died on the Russian Front. I don't know if it was from battle or the winter weather that caused their deaths. My grandmother got seriously ill in the latter part of the war. My grandfather was discharged from the army so he could help her and their three young children.
My grandfather loved to take long walks. On my first summer there, I often walked with him in the late afternoon. One day we went through the farm fields into a small grove of trees. There he showed me the Jewish cemetery for their town, which has now been made a national monument. It was far from the village. We walked back to his 300 year-old house, and he showed me a small, narrow cellar in the tailor shop portion of the house. I did not understand what he was trying to show and tell me, due to my poor comprehension of German at the time. However, I did find out what he was telling me.
My grandfather (Catholic) had several friends before the war who were Jewish. My mother said that she and her two siblings would play with their children. One day, they were gone. Being too young to understand, my mother said they were only told that they had to go to another place to live. The adults knew what was happening, and my grandfather and many others did not support it. Speak out about it, however, and one would be executed.
When he returned home when my grandmother got sick, he joined a group that was involved with smuggling Jews out of Germany. The small, narrow cellar in his house was one of the hiding places. Eventually, someone in the village reported him, and he and my grandmother were arrested by the SS. They were sentenced as traitors to be executed by firing squad. On the day they were to be executed, the American army came through the village and liberated it.
At the next village, just a few miles away, there was a Polish and Russian POW Camp. It became a US Air Base after the war. My mother told me that the children from the village would go to the camp and trade potatoes for little toys made by the prisoners. They would go right up to the wire fence and pass the potatoes through and the POWs would pass the toys to them. My mother said that there was little food for even the people in the villages, so a potato was a valuable commodity, but the children were allowed to trade for toys. There was no money either.
This activity went on throughout the country during the war. Germany is not portrayed as a country with a heart during this time period. There were many Germans who's hearts were stopped by the German government for trying to do the human thing.
Hi Michael
It is a heart warming story of people helping one another....I have myself witnessed a SS Sargent helping a Jewish Mother with 2 little children to escape. But unfortunately there were not to many helpers. I myself was saved by a Polish Catholic family, at a risk to their own lives they got me out of the Ghetto.
Richard
Nice to see you over here there is quit a bunch of us here already...Now that I have manged to list without to much trouble I have to tackle the second problem to sell the listings.
at the silly prices..
Keep well & strong.....Richard
"Michael78651 - that's quite a story to learn about your family. Have you recorded it somewhere for posterity? Thanks for sharing....Sally"
Thank you. The discussion on this thread brought those memories to mind. In a way my writing it here records it. But, you never know, many of the tidbits of things I have in my head do turn into the stories that I write.
It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light. - Aristotle Onassis 23 Jul 2013 07:39:26pm
re: I have arrived and to prove it I am here!!!!
Welcome, Richard and thank you for sharing, Michael.
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"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. - Maya Angelou"
Thank you all for welcoming me to StampoRama.. You sound a great bunch of People. There is however one thing that I fail to understand...... WHY IS IT UNACCEPTABLE to promote once
listing on the chat boards???? Shorely it is our intention to sell them and what better way
to reach all our members than to tell them how cheap they are and what bargains they are missing... & don't wait for the re listing price to be 20% cheaper....Richard
Richard, i'm the ultimate meanie beast on this one. I believe auctions ought to be in the auctions and discussions in the discussions. I don't wish the discussion board to become the plywood on which every peddler plies his wonderful wares. We have encountered people whose primary contribution is to tell us about the stamps they want us to buy. Once open, the flood gates will drown us all. Besides, what better place to look for a stamp to buy than in the auction?
Hope that explains the why of it.
David, the mean auctioneer
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"Save the USPS, buy stamps; save the hobby, use commemoratives"
David, the mean auctioneer!!!!! Impossible with that picture of your Avatar, any one who likes a dog like that can't be mean.. I will tell you my last encounter with a animal like that.. It was in late 1942 and his name was IVAN, we called him Ivan the terrible. It was under the german occupation and there were no Jews left alive in our village. I was making my way to the end of the village and some one would meet me and take me to another safe place where I was not known. It was 4am in the morning, the burglars favorite time, & I was just passing Ivans house, when I heard Woof,WOOF. behind me Well no good running so I froze where I was and he jumped over the 2 meter fence as if it was granny's rocking chair
and stood in front of me. We looked at each other and he sniffed the air and shook his head, well I had no bath for a month, then I put my open hand out to him and he sniffed that and gave it a lick turned round and jumped back over the fence....
.O by the way about the advertizing of listings, You are not the first to have that problem
Delcampe overcame this by having ONE board only for advertizing your listings and everybody is Happy....Or as the Scotchman would say...YOU PAY i FUMBLE...RICHARD
Glad you like Dehlia. She'd likely like you, too, from the sound of it. I'd hate to create an entire new DB just so we can promote what's already in plain sight.
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"Save the USPS, buy stamps; save the hobby, use commemoratives"
Golovacz is itching to get back and tell you some more of his jokes, but he has asked me to inform everyone that he has had no computer for 6 days and it will be a few days more before he is up and running again.
I mean the computer, not Golovacz........he couldn't run if he tried !!
Just so you all know that I need to do all his dirty work. Now I have inform all those other groups where he is a member...I hope I get paid in stamps !!
A Service Dog gives a person with a disability independence. Never approach, distract or pet a working dog, especially when (s)he is in harness. Never be afraid to ask questions to the handler (parent). 09 Sep 2013 04:55:19pm
re: I have arrived and to prove it I am here!!!!
Make sure you add in the Scott premium when you get that payment!
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"Let's find a cure for Still's Disease, Breast Cancer and Canine Addison's Disease. We CAN find a cure and save lives!!"