The Shakepearian verse that I had in yesterday’s post was one that I found in a a collection of poems. That collection had been one of many books owned by the wife of a former Marine.
When the same Marine was on Guam, he sent his wife, the woman who later had the book of poems, a letter. I do not know what was in that letter, but I do know something about the postmark on that letter.
American Marines landed on Guam on July 20, 1944. That fact was not supposed to be revealed to the rest of the world. Letters sent from Guam between July 20, 1944 and August 10 1944 (when hostilities ended) were supposed to have a special postmark. One letter did not.
That letter made its way to York, PA. For many decades the woman who received that letter saved it, and the envelope with the improper postmark. On Januaray 31, 2008, that woman passed away. I am not clear about what happened to her envelope, the one that had been postmarked from Guam.
Whoever has that envelope has, in my mind at least, a very valuable item. Perhaps one day whoever has that envelope will decedide that it should be auctioned-off on e-bay.
