My favorite story about kids and stamps involved Richard Feynmen, Nobel Prize Winner, and a youngster who had become his friend. The question was "Whatever became of Tuva?" - a country that had interesting stamps which Feynman had collected as a child. Feynman's last passion was figuring out how to get there (it had been swallowed by the Soviet Union) in the 1980s. That almost, but never did happen, but his friend Ralph Leighton, did. Meanwhile, a blind blues musician listening to shortwave radio heard Tuvan music (throatsinging) and learned how to sing it. He also learned a bit of the Tuvan language (think of it - a blind man, learning an utterly foreign language that is only transcribed into Russian. The only way to learn Tuvan is through a Russian dictionary). Ralph and a couple film makers helped Paul (Pena, the blues musician) to travel to Tuva, resulting in one of my favorite films, Genghis Blues. So there's foreign intrigue, genius, folk music (!!!), and kismet, all started by a kid collecting stamps.