CHAUTAUQUE LAKE LOCAL POST

You're bound to be pretty serious about philately when your first stamp album is inscribed "Merry Christmas from Mother and Dad-1926". And when you've continued collecting all these years and have exhibited at both Cipex in 1947 and at Fipex in 1956, and have managed to get a "GRAND" and a "BEST of SHOW" with your varied collections, and then edited the ATA 40 page handbook "Rotary International On Stamps" in 1956, And having appeared on the programs of many regional and local stamp societies, you begin to wonder (after 48 years) about all the "fun" there used to be in collecting stamps.

 At this point on lovely Chautauqua Lake in western New York State several very unusual things developed. I acquired a really ancient 1903 motor yacht named "FoR Roligt", which translated from the Swedish means "For Fun". I also had a recent acquaintance with a police dog in the eastern part of the state named "Alfie" who carried her own mail in establishing a "Local Post". And then I uncovered a cache of ancient Chautauquan Indian coins along part of the lakeshore not served by any post office. Then, too, there was the Whitewall Yacht Club right on my property, which would be a perfect place for a Local Post Office. So the Chautauqua Lake Local Post was born!

The currency was the first problem. No one knew anything about these previously undiscovered bits of local Indian lore. What were they called and what were they worth? So we appointed a Monetary Commission made up of some friendly bankers, government officials and lawyers. They always meet on Lincoln's birthday (January 11th- that's mine) and what meetings they turn out -to be: They were the ones who cams up with the name "RASPUFNIKS" and they decided that with the world in such unsteady shape they ought to meet annually (at least) to review things and set up an "Official" rate of exchange. And they did, and do.

Stamp designs, dates of issue and other philatelic bits and. pieces called for some different points of view. So a "Postal Board" was named. The Post Master General of the United States was formally invited to join and also the President of the American Philatelic Society, the President of the Mexican Federation of Stamp Clubs, "Alfie" and her boss, our local postmaster and a couple of dealer friends from New York City and Buffalo. They all accepted except the Postmaster General (and his letter of regret was a very nice one) who found that he was too busy getting his own mail delivered to spend time helping us.

The annual meetings of the Postal Board have turned out to be quite different from the Monetary Commission. They have been held on Mr. Lincoln's birthday (the other one - February 12th) but nobody ever comes. But we got out some publicity releases to stamp editors anyway and told them about our stamps and covers and announced our "indefinite irregular schedule" of pickups and deliveries to the nine lakeside post offices. Surprisingly, the international philatelic press literally "took us into their arms" with this new concept of what one of them called "Philatelic Phoolishness”!

Even COIN WORLD wrote up the Chautauquan? an Raspufnik as something to be reckoned with. . Incidentally, they annually announce the new Rate of Exchange determined by our Monetary Commission. People from all over the world, ever: as far away as Sugar Grave, Pennsylvania, began inquiring about what was going on at Chautauqua Lake. Some more serious individual sent in Raspufnicks they had discovered and were willing to share them from their own private collections. The latest came from Okinawa and is distinctly the "Ceremonial" type. All of a sudden we realized that there were a lot of "fellow-nuts" who were enjoying our philatelic phantasies with us.

Orders for stamps and covers poured in {or maybe we should say tricked}. Our first day covers embellished with small flags were sent in response to orders from nearly every state in the Union (and even from the confederacy as well as from several foreign countries and many FPO and APO addresses. Our staff members found some imperforate sheets (just like Jim Farley did) and naturally these turned out to be collectors items at least to some.

Special local events warranted, or seemed to warrant., some unusual covers to celebrate the affairs. The promotion of our home post office at Greenhurst, New York, from third to second class brought out a neat cartoon cover printed in green (naturally!). On August 20th the 345th Anniversary of the sinking of the Swedish Warship "VASA" was observed with an unusual cover which had, a couple of intentional "sleepers" in the design just for fun. So far not one person has spotted them, or at least they haven't told us about it.

Sensing our serious position in the philatelic world, we gave two awards for "outstanding service" in the field. Honored were Dr. Daniel Vooys, President of the American Philatelic Society (and a member of our own Postal Board) and Leslie Davis, President of the Rueben E. Fenton Philatelic Society. The consisted of framed uncut sheets of the 1972 Chautauqua Lake Local Post stamps with all colors missing. These were perf 12 x 12 and had original gum. Photos of the awards appeared in STAMPS and NATIONAL philatelic publications.

With the recent announcement that the USPS is to issue a new commemorative honoring; Chautauqua as part of its 1974 Rural America Series, we humbly accept this tribute to the publicity which we have helped to bring to this honored institution. Naturally, we will issue a Souvenir Card (isn’t everybody?); otherwise we will ignore the whole thing except to put out a special stamp, same special covers, a miniature sheet, the usual perf and imperf and undoubtedly a few errors.

So we're having fun in this otherwise serious business. And that should be, the name of the game shouldn't it? So, it you're serious about the whole thing (like we are) we'll. send you an 8 page folder about our services, etc.

EDITORS NOTE: Reprinted from PHILAPAX, April 1974 in the May 1975 issue of the Bulletin, original newsletter of the Local Post Society