The Stamp Collecting Report
A radio feature by Lloyd de Vries

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A stamp set that touches my heart.

The stamp collecting report. I’m Lloyd de Vries.

[Music: Opening theme of Broadway show; establish and under]

New U-S stamps celebrate the centennial of the birth of Charles M. Schulz, the creator of the “Peanuts” cartoon strips. The comics still run in newspapers today, even though Schulz stopped creating new ones in Two Thousand. It’s a testament to just how beloved Peanuts was and is.

“Peanuts” means a lot to me personally. You see, my brother had what today are called “learning disabilities.” Back around 1960, he was written off by the education system. My mother was told her child could never be taught how to read.

Mom didn’t accept that. She bought several of the Peanuts compilation books that reprinted the daily comic strips and yes, from those, Jeremy learned how to read. I read them, too, of course, and decades later, he and I were still sharing jokes from “Peanuts.”

Peanuts is kind, gentle, funny and literate. The jokes are never mean or nasty. I’m not sure any other comic strip could have done the job for my family.

I doubt Schulz ever knew what he had done for us, but there have been many other tributes to him. These ten stamps are the latest, and I can’t think of someone who deserves it more.

[Music: “You’re a good man, Charlie Brown….”]

And so were you, Charles M. Schulz.

And that’s stamp collecting. I’m Lloyd de Vries.

The Stamp Collecting Report began in 1997 as a 60-second weekly feature distributed to CBS Radio Network stations by CBS News as part of its Weekend Feature Package. Eventually, longer versions were recorded for this website and a Christian evangelical shortwave service. The Report ended its CBS run in 2017 with only six repeats in some 1,040 weeks. It is now produced solely for The Virtual Stamp Club on an occasional basis.

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