As a kid, I spent my allowance on penny candy, comic books and stamps; occasionally I bought an accessory for my banana-seat bike—especially after the training wheels came off. 

Collecting stamps was probably a nerdy hobby for a kid even back then, but I loved it because it afforded some measure of armchair travel. The names of countries and their ever-changing images were at my fingertips, if deep in a bottom drawer of a display unit at a stationery store on Victoria Street in Amherst, NS, where I grew up.

Of course I am still intrigued by stamps, especially when a new one offers armchair travel right here at home, back in time.

Today Canada Post issued 1,600,000 57¢ stamps depicting William Hall, the first Canadian sailor and black person to receive the Victoria Cross, England’s highest military decoration.

Mr. Hall's parents were African Americans and  former slaves, and the family lived near Hantsport, NS. After working in shipyards, Hall went to sea at age 17. He was on the HMS Shannon en route to China when the Indian Mutiny broke out in 1857; Shannon was rerouted to Calcutta, and it was in India that Hall is cited for extraordinary bravery during combat.

The stamp is to commemorate Black History Month nationally, and in fact rubs shoulders with a stamp depicting another humble, courageous Maritimer—former Governor General and proud New Brunswicker Roméo LeBlanc, to be issued next week.

As for me, once a nerd always a nerd, but I make no apologies. Who knows, banana-seat bikes might even become a collectors’ item.

Heather White
Editor, Saltscapes

For more information about these stamps go to http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/personal/collecting/stamps/index.jsf.