posted 07-02-2011 06:42 AM               

Space Cover #116: A 4th of July Surprise

Being that this is the 4th of July weekend, let's look at an earlier 4th of July! And no, this is not one you would think of (like Viking 1 or Mars Pathfinder).

The above cover was hand cancelled in Houston on July 4, 1962. And the cachet, officially welcoming the Original 7 astronauts to Houston was printed up by the Houston Philatelic Society. So, what was the big welcoming event? With this being Texas, AND the 4th of July, the obvious choice was...a barbeque! This barbeque was mentioned briefly in Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff" although his account may have had a bit of poetic license spun in. The cover itself is fairly common. What is neat is what I found stuck inside the cover!

Twenty-some years ago I was looking through some covers at Rand Philatelic in Houston. Mr. R had retired from NASA after working on space suits and cabin materials for all the manned programs, and both he and his wife were ardent philatelists. They had amassed quite a stock of space covers. They had several of the covers above, but one felt extra-thick. I pulled it out and found the photos above (clockwise from upper left - Shepard, Grissom, Glenn, and Carpenter) inside. Mrs. R explained that those were photos that Mr. R had taken at the barbeque, and she threw those in for me with the price of the cover! There aren't too many space covers around that let you get a glimpse of Al in a cowboy hat!

Happy 4th!!!