Happiness by Chinese Stamps

When I was five years old, I had already started my collection of stamps. Stamps were more present then, the postman delivered them to our door on a daily basis, literally. So, I had my first guard book, the stamps in Austria at that time looked like this:

That summer my father visited China, 1977 a very uncommon destination for Western Europeans. We did not know much about this huge and cultural rich country, apart from a few clichés. When my father came back from his four weeks trip he had brought some stories.
And a few things.
Already then amazing things were made in China, not of microelectronics and plastics as we receive them now, but from wood and paper. Some of the “paper things” I got were remarkable sets of stamps.
They were awesome, large, colourful and artistic in a way I was not used to:

Back to the present, since a few months I am part of Postcrossing, and I love to receive cards and stamps from all over the world, as does my family.
Yesterday I got not one but two cards from China, and I was immedeately brought back to the exact spot when my father handed that wrap with the Chinese stamps in it, instantly, when he arrived home.

Instant memories from early childhood are pretty strong.