Meter Reader Makes His Mark in Postmarks

Letters have been sent here from several nations and from all over the United States for the past few weeks requesting the latest artwork by the chief meter reader for the Redlands Water Department.

This is the sixth year Dave Dickinson, 41, has designed the pictorial postmark for the Redlands Bicycle Classic, a six-day, 360-mile race that is one of the largest events of its kind in Southern California.

The race, taking place today through Monday, attracts 500 professional and amateur bicycle racers from as far away as the Soviet Union, Denmark and France, as well as Mexico, Canada and 30 states. The winners glide away with $50,000 in prizes.

In anticipation of the event, pictorial postmark collectors are mailing stamped, self-addressed envelopes and postcards to the Redlands post office for Dickinson’s one-day, special cancellation. The design depicts three cyclists riding by the Santa Fe Depot, the Fox Theater and the library--three historic Redlands buildings.

On Saturday, postal clerk Valerie Bryant, 41, will hand-stamp letters and cards with Dickinson’s design at a special philatelic booth set up at the bike race. The booth will double for the day as a branch post office.

“Dave Dickinson’s pictorial postmarks have become a tradition at the Bicycle Classic,” said Dennis Houlihan, Redlands post office spokesman. “We receive about 5,000 requests for the cancellation through the mail and Valerie will hand-stamp another 500 or so letters and cards at the booth during the race.”

For Dickinson, designing the pictorial postmarks is a labor of love.

“I’m not an artist, but I have designed first-day covers for new stamp issues for my own amusement,” he said, referring to envelopes bearing stamps canceled on their first day of issue.

“When Redlands Postmaster Chuck Hyatt saw my first-day covers he asked me to do the 1986 pictorial postmark for the bicycle race. I’ve been doing it ever since,” he said.

Dickinson’s pictorial postmarks have shown cyclists racing through the town’s orange groves and riding against the mountains. Another depicted local machine shop owner Franz Rettig riding an 1890s high-wheel bicycle. For years Rettig has ridden his high-wheeler in Redlands parades.

Dickinson grew up on a farm in Fayette, Iowa. After Army service, he settled with his wife, a native of Redlands, in her hometown.

Over the years he has had other activities, besides postmark designing and meter reading, to keep him busy.

He has been a Red Cross volunteer for eight years. He was a volunteer fireman for the nearby Forest Falls Fire Department but was barred from that job because he refused to shave off his beard.

Pictorial postmarks are not new, but Frank Thomas of the Postal Service’s Philatelic Office in Washington reports that “special cancellations have really become a popular collector’s item all over America the past eight years.”

“Any group, organization, town or city may request a pictorial postmark for a special event through their local post office,” Thomas said. “Last year there were over 1,500 pictorial cancellations, in all 50 states.”

Fred Baumann, who writes a column on pictorial postmarks for Linn’s Stamp News, the largest publication for stamp collectors in the world, knows firsthand about the growing volume of pictorial postmarks.

“There are cancellations for fairs, for centennial celebrations, for festivals, footraces, bicycle races, you name it,” said Baumann.

“Our problem is keeping up with them. There are so many. It’s a nice thing for communities. All sorts of ordinary people from all walks of life design the postmarks, like the meter reader in Redlands and art teachers in local elementary and high schools.”

The post office creates the rubber stamp for each cancellation from submitted artwork without charge. Any expenses incurred are covered by profits from the sale of stamps postmarked with the special cancellation.

George Freese, 80, of Grandy, Conn., vice president and secretary-treasurer of the Pictorial Cancellation Society, published a catalogue from 1981-1988 listing each year’s new pictorial postmarks.

“I printed 200 each year for our members. The first year there were about 300 of the special postmarks. By 1988 there were over 1,000. It got to be too big a job, so I threw in the towel. No one else has seen fit to put out a similar catalogue,” Freese said.