My grandpa set the events in motion when he visited our family when I was a child.

Mom took Grandpa, along with my two brothers and I, on a walking town tour. We paused outside of a department store to rest.

Grandpa pulled out his wallet and handed each of us kids a $5 bill. I’d never had that much money at one time.

Before Mom could say, “Now, Dad, that is too much,” Grandpa spoke up: “Go spend all of it.”

One of the store windows displayed toys that kids dream about. I spotted my choice — something to work on during winter evenings. I didn’t know philately meant the collecting and studying of stamps when I handed the money to the clerk. She handed me my paperback stamp-collecting book and plastic magnifying glass. My $2 in change bought a glass magnifying glass and a bag of cancelled foreign stamps.

After Grandpa returned to his home, my work began. The stamps had been torn from envelopes with chunks of paper still attached. I went to my primary source for knowledge and investment advice regarding kid matters — cold cereal boxes and comic book ads.

First, I filled a bowl with water and dropped in a handful of the paper scraps with the stamps on them. The stamps slipped away from the envelopes.

After I patted water off of them, I searched for some way to press them. A used Portland telephone book proved perfect. A single layer of stamps interspersed throughout the book and then topped with several layers of hefty books turned the crinkled, damp bits of paper into dry, flat stamps.

A card table in the living room provided a great work area as I sorted stamps from different countries into piles.

The alert went out to family: “Don’t open the living room door — go around back.”

Dad didn’t get the message and came in the front door accompanied by a gust of wind. Stamps swirled across the room like fall leaves in a hurricane.

In time the stamps, these bits of paper from Australia to Zululand, served as snippets of history from dictators to freedom fighters.

My income increased from my 35 cents an hour for babysitting to a few dollars a day for green bean picking at the Blue Lake bean farm. I’d heft up my gunnysack of beans to be weighed and think of the stamps I could buy.

Once again, I consulted my advisers at the comic book ads. I signed up for stamps on approval, where the company sent me stamps ready to put in my new, larger stamp book purchased with my bean-picking earnings.

To have an idea of the quality of advice I received, this was written for the “Albania. 1952 Underground Liberation Set Complete. These are the Famous Imperforate Errors!!!”

Four stamps bore a likeness to Roosevelt, Churchill and a bearded “liberty fighter.”

The write-up: “Churchill – Roosevelt – Kastrioti — Three great fighters for liberty portrayed on the famous liberation issue of Albanian Underground in Exile. To be used in Albania when the Communists clear out — issued in very limited quantities this is one of the most unusual and exciting sets of stamps ever offered. It’s a set not 1 collector in 10,000 will ever have and it’s yours at a real bargain price.”

The price listed at 40 cents, marked down to 30 cents. Heady stuff for a kid dragging around a gunny sack in a bean field.

In time, my brothers collected stamps also. Later Dad enjoyed a little philately, as well. His specialty — blocks of new U.S. stamps.

Couple of my favorites:

• Oregon Statehood 1859 – 1959, illustrated with covered wagon and a mountain in the distance, U. S. Postage 4 cents.

• Illustrated Mount Vernon – U. S. Postage 1½ cents.

Philately — beyond stamp collecting to geography and history.