Monday, December 31, 2007

Love of Stamps

Fred Gresch, 88, of Hampstead, N.H. is featured in an article that appears on the Eagle-Tribune website.

In 1930, Gresch (shown at right) was playing tag with friends when he decided to jump roughly three feet to the ground from the Delaware River Bridge. The impact caused his right hip to push directly into his pelvis and he subsequently spent eight months in the hospital, undergoing 27 operations.

To help Gresch pass the time in his hospital bed, compassionate nurses offered to assist him in starting a stamp collection. The nurses would collect mailed envelopes about to be trashed by fellow patients and help Gresch cut the stamps out of them.

“I hardly spent anything at all on my stamps,” he said. “They had them and just gave them to me. I accumulated quite a few of them. I was a bit of a pack rat.”

Gresch is quoted in the article as saying, "They bought some albums for me. I remember my mother thanked them very much. I still have the albums.”

To read the entire article, click here.
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posted by Don Schilling at 12:01 AM