You never forget your first set-the one you picked carefully out of a catalog. Mine was when I was twelve. I was home from school, my parents having responded to whatever hypochondria I was manifesting that day. I was looking over my stamp collection which was really a Harris packet of a thousand hinged into a Statesman Deluxe album. I wanted something new for it, something mint. After carefully perusing my Scott catalog I found what I wanted. Combining my love of science fiction, French Colonies and colorful stamps, I decided I wanted Monaco #521-27, the Jules Verne set. The catalog price was $2.15 then (it has soared to a bit over five bucks now-showing my philatelic investment perspicuity). Back then it wasn't easy to get instant delivery of almost any stamp in the world. There was no Internet, no EBay, no Fed Ex. So I did what any self respecting, unindependent twelve year old would have done. I called my father. And in this case my father just had happened to have one of the largest stamp shops in the world. He brought the stamps home that night and I'm not sure if I ever paid him or not. My circumstances in obtaining these stamps are probably different from what most collectors experienced in getting theirs, but every collector's first is special and unforgettable. Every time I see my Monaco set, I get a warm feeling- a feeling of my father's care, the safety of my home, and a time when a simple set of stamps could make so many things feel right.