Now I'm trying to learn a new script for the docent program at the museum which is so daunting to me I've decided to work on my stamp collection.
That is what I was doing this morning. I've not touched my collection for 5 years. It was hard to find albums, stock books and other material when the only stamp store that I knew of closed.
So the other day I decided I will start small. I've been soaking stamps for a few days now but had no idea what I was going to do with all of them as I don't have a place to put them. Two nice things appeared while going through the boxes of my stock.
I found a letter dated October 22, 1991 from the Sterling Historical Society, Inc. They were apologizing for the fact that they had run out of the postal cover Of "Mary and her Lamb."
but they had attached a pamphlet by way of a consolation.
The pamphlet contained the story of Mary and her Lamb! What fun I thought.
The poem as you all know, goes;
Mary had a little lamb;
Its fleece was white as snow;
And everywhere that Mary went,
The lamb was sure to go
The pamphlet explains that in 1918 Mary and her dad had found two newborn twin sheep in their sheep pen. One had been rejected by it's mother and was nearly dead. Mary asked if she could take care of it and was granted permission.
The lamb grew strong and attached. He followed Mary every where as the poem goes.
It followed her to school one day,
Which was against the rule;
It made the children laugh and play,
To see the lamb at school.
As Mary and her brother headed for school one day it followed her. Her brother thought it would be funny to sneak him into the class. The lamb sat under Mary's seat covered with with her shawl. It worked great until Mary was called up to the front of the class to recite something. Of course the lam followed her up their.
The kids got a kick out of it and were all laughing as was the teacher. She must have been a wonderful teacher to not get upset or was just thankful it wasn't a frog I guess.
And so the teacher turned it out,
But still it lingered near,
And waited patiently about
Till Mary did appear
I guess the laughter was too much or the bleating of the lamb to loud as the teacher suggested to Mary to put the lamb in the nearby shed until noon. So yes the lamb was put out but was nearby and then Mary did take it home.
I love it when I find these little trivial pieces of nursery rhymes and their connection to history.
Oh, and the second good thing I found today is a web site that offers free pages for US stamps. Now I will be able to start organizing for sure. At least until I come across another neglected hobby or get down to the serious business of the dolls and museum script.
That's a lovely story about Mary and her lamb. I had no idea that the nursery rhyme was so recent or that it was based on real events. Hope the Museum stuff is going OK. Will e-mail soon.
ReplyDelete