Summer's Christmas Pickle

         This is a true story of a postcrossing philatelist’s quest to avenge her Christmas pickle postmark disappointment.  Summer Semnani had sent out her Christmas cards to the Christmas Pickle Station Postmaster in Florida to be postmarked with a 2023 Christmas Pickle postmark.  Her attempts to attain this pictorial postmark were unsuccessful as she was advised that she submitted the cards too late to get the postmark.  Summer explained that she submitted her request for the postmarks in time, however, her Christmas cards were not postmarked with the special pictorial cancel.  As such, her Christmas cards were not complete.  There was only one thing for Summer to do and that was to create her own pickle postmark for her Christmas cards.  Summer sprang into action researching how to create her own postmark and how to get the proper approval to do so.  After conducting Google searches, she discovered an upcoming pickle festival in North Carolina.  She now formulated the perfect plan.  She obtained approval from the pickle festival to go ahead and submit a pictorial postmark with a pickle to commemorate the North Carolina Pickle Festival. 

         Summer also studied the United States Postal Service rules on how to create a postmark so she wouldn’t be disappointed a second time.  She made the artwork for the postmark using the festival logo and a drawing of a jar of pickles that she created.  Summer was able to jump through all the hoops and her postmark was approved by the USPS and was included in the postal bulletin.  Summer had the postmark made and delivered it to the Mount Olive Post Office where they processed all the requests for this special postmark.  Her story has a happy ending because now all her Christmas cards were able to be sent out, although five months late, with a beautiful pickle postmark.  Summer said, “In the end, my friends got their Christmas cards five months late.  Held the first NC Pickle Festival Postcrossing Meetup across the street.  Grand time. Never will forget it.  I don’t know how I ended up here in life, but it got people interested in postmarks and sending letters.”  Summer’s pickle quest has helped the stamp community and is spreading her love of stamp collecting to anyone she tells the story to.  People are intrigued by the story which inspires them to become interested in stamps and sending letters. 

Notes: 

1.     Postcrossing is a project that allows you to send postcards and receive postcards back from random people around the world.  Source: www.postcrossing.com