Paper Trails and Postmarks

Writing to friends and family, a little history, and new stamps to spice up your note and letter-writing life

Image created by the author with Ideogram.ai

Hey, my friend,

It’s a memorable week here in the Cottrell household.

I retire this week from First Bank/First National Corporation after 34 years on its board of directors and ten years as its board chair. It’s a bittersweet occasion, to be sure, and I am working on my comments to the shareholders at tomorrow’s annual meeting.

We had family in town this past weekend to celebrate Mother’s Day with our remarkable 101-year-old mother.

We measured two tenths of an inch of desperately needed rain in our rain gauge on Saturday. I’m pretty sure we made that happen by having a truck load of water hauled in on Friday for our twelve young arbor vitae trees. ;-)

And the peonies are blooming!

And lest you think these have nothing to do with note and letter writing, I assure you, they are exactly the kind of details I put in my personal letters to friends and family—the kind I love to receive so I can visualize my loved ones, even when they’re far away.

But I’ve come across a few epistolary tidbits I wanted to share before getting back to the rest of the day:

• Step back in time: Don’t miss Lisa Lee Mills’s article “From Quill to Keyboard: Tracing the timeless art of letter writing from past to present,” It’s a fascinating reminder of how our letter-writing practices and habits have changed, and yet…it’s all still about Connection, isn’t it?

• “Figures of the American Revolution: Stamp: Issued at the end of April, using this Forever® stamp is a fabulous way to celebrate this country’s 250th anniversary this year. Each sheet features 25 key figures from the American Revolution. Here’s a profile of each.
  
  ”The block of 25 stamps rests against a background that features the Declaration of Independence, anchoring the portraits in one of the Revolution’s defining documents. Together, they create a visual narrative of courage, conviction, and collective effort, inviting reflection on our core values and affirming that the work of forging a nation is never finished” (from the USPS website).

  

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• New USPS Stamps issued in May: There are seven very cool new stamps being issued this month. Here are three of my favorites, and I’ve asked Ryan at the Maurertown post office (yes, we’ve gotten to be good friends) to hold a sheet of each for me when they go on sale:

  • ROUTE 66 (issued May 6, 2026: This Forever® stamp commemorates the 100th anniversary of the legendary highway that originally stretched about 2,400 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles. I’ve driven over quite a few stretches of it in my life. If you have, let me know in the comments below. Here’s a fun 3-1/2-minute video about Route 66 and the new stamp:

  • POSTCROSSING (Issue date May 26, 2026): These unusual triangular stamps are similar to Forever® stamps, but for use on international letters and cards to more than 180 countries. They celebrate the Postcrossing website that has inspired—since 2005—more than 805,000 people around the world to send more than 85 million postcards to eager recipients in other countries. I wrote about Postcrossing last year “Postcrossing: Send a Card, See the World.”

    

  • INTERNATIONAL PEACE (Issue date May 27, 2026): This is being issued as a Forever® stamp in panes of 20. With war on our minds and in the news, I plan to stock up on these stamps and use them often as a tangible statement of my daily prayers for peace.

    

• You can check out the other four May USPS stamp issues HERE.

Okay, back to the rest of the day. I hope yours is a great one!

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Stamps, stories, and the lost art of letter writing—this issue of The Heartspoken Note has it all. Share it with a friend who still believes in the power of a handwritten note.

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Always remember

Whether written or spoken, words from the heart will never fail you!

See you next week!

Heartspokenly,

P.S. This week’s newsletter is sponsored by MailerLite, the email service provider I have used for years for my blog. If you need a simple, affordable, but still robust email service provider, this is a reliable one, with excellent customer support.

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