Postal Patrons Stick It to Nixon’s Stamp : Commemoration: Some folks still hold a first-class grudge against the only President to resign. One customer adds a word balloon to the stamp on his letters: ‘I am not a crook.’ But sales at Nixon Library are brisk.

America’s love-hate relationship with Richard Nixon continues. Even a new stamp issued in his memory is enough to get people riled.

The postage stamp commemorating the 37th President seems to be generating nearly as much controversy as Nixon did in life.

Some 2.5 million of the stamps sold on the first day of issue--April 26--with lines throughout the day at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, Calif.

But elsewhere sales have sometimes lagged, with some folks still holding a grudge and refusing to use the postage.

And at least one who puts Nixon’s visage on his letters adds the words: “I am not a crook,” recalling one of the President’s most-quoted statements, made in the heat of the Watergate affair.

The opposition:

* Omnika Simmons of New York said she “wouldn’t buy it. Now that he’s deceased, it’s like anybody can commit any crime . . . and then be totally forgiven for it later. I just don’t think it’s right.”

* “I hate to see him glorified in any way, yet he did do some constructive things for the country,” said West Hartford, Conn., resident Stephanie Allinson.

* “In a Democratic city he’s not going to be popular,” observed Walter Simpson, a clerk at Washington’s main post office, who said some customers are rejecting the stamp.

The fans:

* “I like Richard Nixon. . . . He may have done some things wrong, but I think he did a hell of a lot right,” said Mace Berrin, 32, a postal customer in New York.

* “My personal feeling is that he’s a former President and he deserves a stamp regardless of any shenanigans,” said Mark Petrizzo, a window clerk in the downtown post office in Hartford, Conn.

* In New York, postal customer Jim Vitiello said: “I thought he was a decent President. Everybody makes mistakes. I have absolutely no negative connotations of it at all.”

The humorous:

* A Seattle postal clerk told of one customer “who came up and showed me that he had given Nixon a speech balloon saying, ‘I am not a crook’ for every stamp that he had used.”

* “I’d say the reaction has been mixed,” said postal clerk Phil Van Vleet in Des Moines, Iowa. He said one customer bought a stamp and commented: “I never thought I’d be licking the back of Nixon.”

The indifferent:

* “It doesn’t matter to me, as long as it gets the mail there. But I guess I’d rather have Elvis,” said postal customer Tony Janssen of Des Moines.

The sympathetic:

* “Poor Nixon. I’ve had people come in and say, ‘Give me any kind of stamp, just don’t give me Nixon,’ ” said Ivy Delvalle, a New York City postal clerk.

* “I wouldn’t mind buying the stamp. Poor guy. I would’ve thought that people would have gotten over it by now,” said Seattle customer Paul Billington.

Azeezaly Jaffer, manager of stamp services for the post office, said a few offices have ordered extra Nixon stamps and none have been returned unsold.

About 80 million Nixon stamps were printed, Jaffer said. Detailed sales figures aren’t usually available until a stamp has been on sale for six months or more.

Jaffer said he received some letters of complaint when plans for the Nixon stamp were announced, but none since it went on sale. The post office traditionally issues a stamp honoring a past President in the year after his death.