The March-April issue of First Days, the journal of the American First Day Cover Society, is now available for download for society members and should be in their mailboxes any day now.

A veteran FDC collector tells how his interest all-but-started with hearing the heart-wrenching words, “there were so many more boxes that we didn’t have room for, so we burned them.” The issue also contains a chronicle of the adventure of servicing unofficial-location FDCs (“UOs”) in the days before the interstate highway system — and during the winter in Vermont!

Michael Dodd discusses what to watch for if you come across FDCs of the 1967 British Discovery & Invention stamps. Another article describes first day covers honoring a Filipino stamp organization’s most famous member. You know him, but you don’t know the cachetmaker profiled by Gerald H. Strauss, at least, not as a cachetmaker.

Gary Dickinson’s “Canadian Cachets” series looks at a major cachetmaker’s recycling efforts in the 1940s. Michael Lake tells of the close connection between an ArtCraft variety and the stamp affixed to it.

Also in the March-April issue is the debut of a new series, “Technology and Techniques,” and Mary Ann Bowman’s youth column solicits ideas on using topical FDCs to interest children in our hobby.

Even the ads are informative: In one, a collector asks for scans of MacArthur and Nimitz FDCs missing from his website, while another seeks Stanley Steamer covers.

Not yet a member of the AFDCS? Go to www.afdcs.org/join.html