The continuing series on first day issues, and the history behind them.
These are the envelopes of first day issues from our Stella’s collection, starting today with that Moon landing back in July 1969.
I have to confess that I never saw the live TV coverage of the historic event. We had gathered to watch it at the house of a friend in Orpington, but I was on an early shift which meant being at work for 6 am, which in turn meant leaving an hour earlier if I wanted to be on time.
And so Clive and I who was also working, left the assembled gathering and drove home to Eltham.
I suppose looking back it was a decision that lacked the sense of history, but then Glenville’s food factory on the banks of the Thames by the Blackwall Tunnel was where I earned my money, and a failure to show up could have cost me my job.
That said the job was hard, and unpleasant and consisted of filling 56 lb bags of hot granulated milk powder, from an outlet.
The outlet had long ago lost the regulating tap, and so we had to slip one hand underneath the outlet while the other chap pulled the filled bag free and a an empty substitute placed underneath the tap.
The heat made you perspire and as you were already covered in milk dust, it combined to produce rivulets of sweet milk.
Looking back, the sitting room in Orpington might well have been preferable, although neither would have been as challenging as that moon landing.
By contrast the departure of the Mayflower from Plymouth may seem tamer, but a journey in a small sailing ship across the Atlantic, which was destined to arrive in November just a head of winter was a tough challenge.
I have no idea when the Mayflower envelope was issued but I think it will have been to commemorate the 350th anniversary which was in 1970, and with a bit of research came across the story of that commemoration, which I will leave you to read..*
Pictures; first day of issue stamps, 1962 and 1969, from the collection of Stella Simpson
*The 'greatest festival Plymouth ever staged' is coming back, Rachael Dodd, August 1st, 2018 Plymouth Live, https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/history/greatest-festival-plymouth-ever-staged-1840518
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