Lesson Learned
- Lucian@going2paris.net
- Jul 27, 2021
- 1 min read
Quincy, Washington
July 27, 2021
My sister Jacquie long ago suggested that it would be fun to get post marks from the Paris’ I visit — the ones that have post offices. I sent Courtney and Lucian letters from the first few Paris’ thinking that the post mark would show Paris. They didn’t I assumed that the post marks were now done at central locations by machine so I stopped trying to get post marks.
Wrong again, Lucian.
I learned yesterday that all post offices still have post mark stamps. If asked, they will use it on your letter or if you are not mailing anything, will stamp a piece of paper as a souvenir — as the postmaster in Index, Washington did for me yesterday.
So now I have a new item on my to do list — to request post marks from the Paris’ post offices I have already visited. The date won’t be the date I was there but I can live with that.
If you put a self addressed stamped envelope inside an envelope addressed to the postmaster of the post office where you want the local staff, and include a brief note asking the postmaster to put the local post office stamp on the letter and mail it back, most will do so. When I was a boy I collected stamps and postmarks for a while. I used this method to obtain special postmarks for particular stamps. For example you might send an envelope with a Thomas Jefferson stamp to all of the Monticello post offices around the U.S. There are 16 towns in the US named Monticello. Plus there is a Monticello post office branch in Williamsburg, Virginia on of co…