Funny thing about albums.

First, they hold memories preserve remembrances of your sons 10th birthday party somewhere in a busy downtown restaurant in Rio de Janeiro, the volleyball tournament on the beach that hot summer day, the forbidden snap shot of a famous painting in the museum that you got reprimanded for, security guards threatening to boot you out of the premises.

Thats probably the first album you pluck out of the dusty shelves to show to friends so that you can tell them how a police officer in Paris gave you that stern, warning look and all you could say was oui, monsieur, je mexcuse.

Second, this whole thing about albums may have given rise to a craze called scrap booking. An offshoot most likely, but who knows how long it will be around. All of a sudden there are web sites promoting the hobby of scrap booking. Stores in your neighborhood are setting up shop selling all things big and small relating to scrap booking.

But albums and stamp collecting?

Now, theres a classic. It has remained à la mode, even if it started ages ago, 140 years to be exact.

Stamp collectors have their own specialized albums. And as seasoned and professional philatelists will say, just make sure you have enough pages in your album to hold a lot of stamps. Some people have been known to keep more stamp albums than photo albums in their attic.