"Extra, Extra - Read all about it! " Ladies and Gentlemen, this way to the "Big Top" to see
the long-awaited "Lifetime Achievement Letterboxing Award" nominees for 2008/2009!
Those who may remember from past years know that this special "letterboxing award" is a
sort of historical record of those who have seriously (or not so seriously!;) dedicated
themselves to our delightful little hobby well beyond the "call of duty" for five or more
years, planted 100 or more letterboxes and have a combined PFX over 500, or are well on
their way to attaining those goals!

We realize that nowadays that last number may not seem very impressive at all, when
folks can get 500 "stamp images" in a single month just by doing drive-bys, going to a
couple of stamp-swap gatherings or even just going on-line or out to their mailboxes!
However, we're going back to a time that predates any of those latter day "stamp
collecting" manifestations, or SWOH, as we call it (short for "Stamps Without Hikes"). We're
talking here about a time when going out on hunts for a few hundred individual letterbox
finds or meeting even a few dozen fellow letterboxers represented a HUGE challenge, so
PFX 500 back then was very impressive indeed!

Speaking of which, we actually started a PFX500 Club back in 2001 that can still be seen
on our web page at http://alum.wpi.edu/~p_miner/Letterboxes.html#pfxclubs We still
remember how at the time some folks were rather disgruntled about it, thinking that it
would be almost impossible to achieve that status, since there were scarcely that many
letterboxes in the whole country back then! Well, just look at where we are with North
American letterboxing now, tens of thousands of letterboxes and many PFX Club members
later!

Yes, we certainly have had many letterboxers "join the club" since then, and although we
don't advertise it much any more, since some of the newer folks seem to have difficulty
distinguishing between what constitutes letterboxing and what is just "stamp collecting",
we are still happy to recruit new members! All we ask, in fairness to those for whom
achieving those numbers represented a real effort, is that none of the recent "new-
fangled stamp stuff" like personal travelers, postals, virtuals, tabletoppers, cooties and
other such SWOH from gatherings be included in the count, because those things simply
did not exist at the time these clubs were established! Of course, some of the members in
more recent times may have some of that "stamp collecting"/ "non-letterboxing stuff"
already "grandfathered" into their counts, but for anyone else who might care to join up,
please just send us the date you reached any particular level of what in some new circles
is now being called "traditional letterboxing" (but which is just plain letterboxing to us!),
and we'll be glad to add your name to the list!

Anyway, to get back now to those folks who have received or will soon be up for our
"Lifetime Achievement Letterboxing Award", yes, historically many of these folks have
represented important influences on our hobby here in North America, many are in our
PFX clubs, and we are certainly happy to honor them with our "Lil' Oscar" ! ( Remembering,
of course, that it's the thought, not the stamp, that counts!;-) Sorry it has taken us so long
to get organized this time to "roll out the red carpet" - or perhaps we should say in
keeping with this year's theme "the big top tent"! The first couple of years we announced
the "LA-LA" in October, last year we didn't get around to it until Thanksgiving, and this
time we couldn't even quite manage to get it ready for Epiphany! However, the advantage
in waiting this long this time is that the "LA-LA" can now span two years, and since we're
getting pretty shaky on remembering just exactly when some folks started and how many
boxes they have actually planted (seeing just how many people and how many boxes there
are in the hobby by now!), this is an advantage indeed! As we explain in this season's "LA-
LA" itself, it's easier now to just have folks tell us when they've got their 5 years and
eligible counts in, and we'll take it from there! Also, as we've said in years past, please let
us know if there is anyone we've forgotten, as we would like to make this as accurate a
portrayal of "highly significant letterboxers" through the years as we can, and have it be of
some historic interest to newcomers to the hobby as well!

By the way, speaking of things that might be of interest to new letterboxers, we mention
towards the end of this season's LALA how "log-ins" themselves are only a fairly recent
phenomenon in North American letterboxing history, and are definitely not the
"requirement" that some newbies seem to assume them to be! We also mention how
happy we were to see some letterboxers returning some of that old "mystique" to the
hobby by going back to the longtime standard practice of keeping their finds private, only
available in their own lists/logbooks or to those who actually went out actively
letterboxing and found out who had visited where for themselves! Well, imagine our
delight when we went out to check on one of our own RI boxes just yesterday afternoon,
thinking that with all the new people these days doing the "public log-in thing", it had
probably not yet been visited... only to find out that there had already been over a dozen
visitors, and not a single "public logger" among the bunch! What a wonderful surprise -
now THAT, to us at least, is what letterboxing is really about!

Anyway, here it is - "LALA 2008-2009":
http://alum.wpi.edu/~p_miner/Letterboxes.html ... See box 127!

Cheers and Happy Hunting,

Wanda & Pete
P303 F20,422 X1858