COVER N.161 - POLAND
Postmark: Grodkow 26.08.2022
Posted on 16th August; received on the 2nd September 2022
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Large stamps call for large covers, and that's what my friend, Mr. Postman, dropped into my letterbox: a C5 envelope that started its journey in Grodkow, a city in the Southwest of Poland, in the Upper Silesia region, with 8.4 thousand inhabitants as of 2021.
Every time I get a letter from somewhere I do a little spying through my Google spy glasses to see what that somewhere looks like and this only fosters my yearning for travelling... how could it be different with a town that boasts such a nice Town Hall as I've learned Godkow does?
I have never been to Poland,(sigh....) but I'm sure that in a not so far future I will have ticked the box. In fact, I have never been to a lot of places even if I have already been to a whole bunch of them.
Traveling is the cinematic expression of reading, both are fundamental learning tools but traveling has the added bonus of calling on the active participation of all of our senses, while reading is much more an intellectual activity that relies on a direct almost passive channel between the eyes and the brain (watching TV or a movie just takes the process one step further on the passiveness scale...).
Reading is also much easier than travelling from a logistic point of view for obvious reasons and most of the times, we, regular standard issue human beings, do not have the time, the resources or the opportunity to travel as much as we would like, so we find ways to fill in the void.
And that's what a cover from somewhere you have never been to, falling into one's letterbox, exactly does!
Thank you so much Piotr! Enquiring into the histories and sights disclosed by looking deep into the centre of the stamps on the covers I receive, makes me a richer person ... maybe one day I'll be a stampillionaire....😀
The Chinese new year seems to be a highly collectible theme for philatelists, judging from the number postal administrations all over the world that issue annual emissions dedicated to the theme.
The 3.30 Zloty stamp dedicated to the year of the bull was issued on 26FEB 2021.
Its 2022 counterpart, a 4 Zloty (ah... inflation...inflation...) stamp dedicated to the year of the tiger, was issued on 01FEB2022.
Both stamps feature the image of the animal of the year and the legend "Chinese zodiak signs" followed by the identification of the sign of the year: Year of the Buffalo and Year of the Tiger, respectively.
Józef Mackiewicz (1902 – 1985) was a Polish writer whose life crossed through the troubled history of Poland in the 20th century, from its regaining its independence by the end of WW1 to its loosing it again at the hands of the Germans in the aftermath of the infamous Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, through it becoming a satellite country of the Soviet Union following the end of the WW2 hostilities.
A staunch anti-communist he exiled himself in 1945 first to Rome and then to Munich, where he would see his last days.
According to the references I consulted, his literary production is permeated by realistic accounts of a period in history that was not the finest hour for mankind, be it the hardships of life under soviet occupation or the controversial bombing of Dresden in the late stages of WW2.
Honouring the 120th anniversary of his birth, Poczta Polska on 01APR2022 issued the 30 Polish grosza commemorative stamp that can be seen on my cover.
At a time when the importance of vaccines could not be more evident, although ironically some beneficiaries of the quantum leap in longevity that vaccines have allowed the human race still care to question it, it is highly adequate that Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) be remembered.
Celebrating the bicentennial of the birth the man who was at the fulcrum of the development of vaccines to rabies and anthrax, two very democratic and effective killers, and whose works paved the way for the development of so many other vaccines we now enjoy the benefits of, Poczta Polska issued on 07MAR2022 a 30 grosza commemorative stamp with the effigy of Pasteur superimposed on a French Flag. Small images of a syringe and a laboratory flask point us to his achievements in the fields of microbiology and vaccine development.
The "Independent Self-governing Trade Union of Individual Farmers "Solidarity" " was established in 1980 as part of the historic "Solidarity" movement led by Lech Wałęsa that would eventually see the transition of Poland from the Soviet Union sphere of influence into the blue and yellow starred flag of the EU.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the official creation of this organisation, Polska Poczta Posta, on 12MAY2021, issued the 5 groza stamp of which a pair can be seen on my cover.
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