Felix Carroll: Welcome to this club's stamping grounds

This story was first published in The Berkshire Eagle.

By Felix Carroll

PITTSFIELD — The man riding on cloud nine for reasons that will become obvious pulls into the Berkshire Mall parking lot just before 7 on a chilly Tuesday evening. 

His head topped with a trilby, white puffs of hair spilling from the sides, he gets out and navigates through the slush on swift, scuffling, 91-year-old feet, until he's safely inside the food court. There, he takes a seat, puts a hand securely atop his briefcase and awaits the others.

His name is Edward Ptak (pronounced "Puh-tack"). He is of slight build, with a slight lisp, and indisputably huggable.

"Ptak is a four-letter word, and you're going to learn something Polish," he says. "Converted from Polish to English, it is still a four-letter word, and it comes out `B-i-r-d.' So now you know that."

He looks around. The place is nearly empty.

"Oh, I brought this to show you," he says.

He places a poster board onto the table. It contains a full-page spread from the April 16, 1932, issue of The Berkshire Evening Eagle with the headline, "Berkshires Plays Big Part in Growing Hobby of Stamp Collecting." It's all about the Berkshire Stamp Club and philately, the study of stamps, which the article calls "an absorbing hobby for rich and poor."

"Last year was my 90th year," Ptak says, "and this year is the club's 90th year."

As much as you might expect the Berkshire Stamp Club to meet at, say, a hallowed hall in the Berkshire Museum, or some wainscoted upper room at the Elks Club, or even a low-ceilinged cellar at the American Legion, it does not. For the past 17 years, it holds its twice-monthly meetings here at the Berkshire Mall, in the community room, down a narrow hallway off the food court. There's a guy who appears from nowhere to unlock the door.

"They don't charge us anything just so long as we behave ourselves," Ptak says.

Of the 30 or so members on the Berkshire Stamp Club's current mailing list, five are named Ed. There are also five Bobs. Ptak's younger brother is in the club, too. He goes by "Butch," though his birth name is Florian.

Butch is known for his collection of Einstein and Andrew Jackson stamps.

"He'll be here tonight," Ptak says. "I'll introduce you."

At the mall entrance, the others are arriving, a veritable shoal of stamp collectors, many of whom also carry hard-shell briefcases, but none containing anything as exciting as what Ptak has in his this evening.

Ed Flynn is the first to the table.

"Look at that: this famous man," says Flynn, patting Ptak on the shoulder.

Bob Cansilla, too, congratulates Ptak. "Great job," he says.

What's all the fuss?

Though Ptak would rather the matter wait until the meeting itself begins, he snaps open his briefcase. Amid folders in which he keeps tabs on the club's door prizes and petty cash fund, he digs out a magazine article wrapped in see-through plastic sheathing for safekeeping.

"See, I also belong to the American Philatelic Society," Ptak says. "They put out a magazine, a monthly, for members. This is the publication, American Philatelist, and it's a worldwide organization. Now look at this."

Yes, look at this — American Philatelist's January issue contains an article written by none other than Edward Ptak of Pittsfield, retired General Electric engineer and eldest member of this outfit.
"I'll give you a copy of it," he says. "All I did was give them an 8 1/2-by-11 piece of paper with my story on it, and they made it elaborate. Then, right here, they have my name."

"Let me show you a printing mistake," Flynn says, stepping up to the table. "Your name: They shouldn't have put it there, because it melds into the background and you can't read it."

"You can't read it because of the background," Ptak repeats, leaning in to look.

"You need to put black over a white background," explains Flynn, who retired from The Berkshire Eagle's pressroom in the early 1990s.

"But this isn't a newspaper," Ptak protests. "This is a stamp club article."

He looks around at the others.

Ptak puts the article back into his briefcase and saves it for the community room, for the meeting, which begins at 7:30 — precisely when the second hand on the wall clock points to 12.
Ten members are present, including two Bobs. Ptak is joined by another Ed, Dr. Ed Helitzer, a Pittsfield dentist, whose stamp collection, like those of the others, is both dear and vast. But his, more so than the others, happens to also be significantly valuable, which will become apparent momentarily.

After discussing old business (12 members attended the Christmas party at the Highland, and it was great fun) and new business (including plans for the annual spring stamp auction), the members devote the rest of the evening to a show-and-tell. That includes Cansilla, with his colorful stamped envelopes from overseas; Bob Janes, with his Project Mercury materials; Jack Andres and his planet stamps; and Helitzer with an extremely rare stamp illustrating Columbus' fleet of ships.

"You told me you had never seen a number 233A, which was a 4 cent stamp issued in 1893 in error," he says to Cansilla. "Here it is."

"Holy smoke," Cansilla says.

But the highlight of the evening is Ptak, who stands and shows everyone the article from American Philatelist.

"This is something I sent them over a year ago," he says. "I think they changed two words and left out one. Other than that, everything is exactly like I sent them."

The article tells of how Ptak, in 1939, when he was 12, discovered a stash of stamps stuffed into oatmeal and cigar boxes in the neighbor boy's chicken coop.

"But that's all I'm going to say. You have to read the story," Ptak says.

"It'll go into the drawer with all the other stuff I want to keep," Cansilla says.

The club has to vacate the community room by 9 p.m., and so the meeting is soon called to a close.

Back out in the parking lot on swift, shuffling feet, that poster board flapping against his side, Ptak says, "I don't think that stamp collecting will disappear forever, because there's always going to be some kid like me who decides, `Oh, I'd like to collect those.'"

He then stops in his tracks.

"Wait, one more story," he says. "When my youngest daughter was in fifth grade, the teacher was writing something on the board and said, `Does anybody know what I just wrote?' My daughter was the only one who held her hand up. The teacher was stunned.

"My daughter told her, `You wrote `Bulgaria' in the Cyrillic alphabet.' The teacher asked, `How do you know that?' and my daughter responded, `I'm a stamp collector with my dad.'

"That's a true story," Ptak says, "and now I've talked your ear off."

With that, he climbs back into his car and heads back home to his 2 million-plus stamps and a Mrs. Edward Ptak — Emily, also a member of the club, but not feeling so well lately.
She collects old stamped envelopes mailed from submarines.
Felix Carroll can be reached at felixcarroll5@gmail.com.