Tuesday, April 30, 2019

A to Z April Challenge: Z is for Zilch


This is a continuation of LAST APRIL’s challenge about HEIRLOOMS. When my sister and I cleaned out our parents’ home, we had to make many decisions about what to do with all the stuff. Which things are truly “valuable” and which have only sentiment in their favor? Should we sell it, keep it, or throw it away? To help ensure a future for our family’s heirlooms, I plan to leave a booklet for my daughters telling the stories of what they will inherit one day. (Not TOO soon, I hope!)



is for Zilch which means a quantity of no importance.

I suppose this girdle box would be considered something of no importance. Of course, a girdle itself would have been very important to some women in years past. Even if they didn’t need help keeping their stomach flat, they needed the hooks to hold their hose up.



You might think that when I "inherited" the girdle box, I got zilch. However, what was inside the girdle box was and IS important: diplomas.

Yes, my grandaunt Violetta Davis Ryan had rolled up her 3 college diplomas and inserted them into the box which just so happened to be the exact size she needed.

Just this past year I donated two of her diplomas to James Madison University. She was an alumna of the early years when JMU was the Normal School and State Teachers College. Read the story HERE if you are so inclined.

I survived the challenge. Now gimme that badge!

Wendy
© 2019, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

21 comments:

  1. Thank you for an interesting journey through your treasures. I shall remember Zilch for a future series!

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  2. Congratulations on getting to Z. WOW!

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    1. Thanks! Nice traveling through A to Z with you.

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  3. You did it! Not just A to Z but also Sepia Saturday and #52Ancestors. You are my hero. Not to mention how clever you were to come up with Zilch.

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    1. I'm not deserving of that pedestal - I could fall any minute. But thanks for the vote of confidence.

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  4. Another successful April! Thanks for the good reads!

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  5. I remember my mom having a girdle and using it to snap in her hose. I also remember she didn't wear it unless she needed to! I also remember your blog post about the diplomas being in there!

    Congrats you did it!!! Great job in finishing the challenge! I think I caught every one of your posts. I might have missed one on Saturdays as that is a whirlwind day for me.

    betty

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    1. Yeah, my mom had one too. I remember one morning when she was getting ready for school (she was a teacher), her girdle had not dried from washing the day before so she put it in the oven on LOW, but it melted anyway. HA HA. So much for her Playtex LIVING Girdle.

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  6. Oh man. I even wore a girdle to hold up my hose when I started wearing them - junior high??? Congratulations on completing the challenge!

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    1. Come to think of it, I may have had one too but mostly I remember the garter belt.

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  7. I remember wearing a garter belt. Glad there was no girdle in the box.
    Congrats on finishing ��

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    1. HA - yeah, that girdle would surely have been dry-rotted.

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  8. Luckily you didn’t throw the box! Congratulations on the Challenge finish, yeah!!

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    1. Oh yes, that would have been a sad loss.

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  9. Now we know where your 'Clever Keeper' self comes from...Aunt Violetta!!! You've done her justice throughout this challenge and in your family genealogy. I love that she used the girdle box to preserve her '3' diplomas. Wouldn't you have loved to be a fly on the wall while she was contemplating that? Another challenge done and for you a record of Family Heirlooms. Well, done and done!

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    1. Good point - I wonder what options for diploma storage Violetta rejected.

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  10. Another year of your incredible family heirlooms in A to Z. It was your A to Z posts the past few years that inspired me to try it - once. I go back at least to the year of the funeral book. I don't think I have it in me to do it again. I wrote ahead thinking I would have time in April to work ahead on other posts. But with reading & commenting on others and replying to mine that didn't work out. Until I retire, I will be satisfied with just the reading others' A to Z posts. But it was a wonderful experience.

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    1. The funeral book was my favorite. But I know what you mean about A-Z. My theme was EASY. Short posts - not much research to speak of. I could write a bunch at a time and schedule them. Yet I still was behind on reading and responding. The other day I responded to a week's-worth of comments. Glad it's done!

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  11. Thanks for a fun blog series to follow and congrats on finishing the A-Z.

    DB McNicol, author
    A to Z Microfiction: Zebra
    Personal Blog

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