Throwback Thursday

A Throwback Thursday  from January 2015

My very first Graceful Envelope Contest win in 2000. Beginner's luck. The theme was a significant historic event in the past 100 years. I chose the invention of the disposable diaper in 1961. I loved the New Year baby stamp. The envelope was constructed from the leg and waistband of a real disposable diaper. The front was a sheet of Arches 90# watercolor paper

Contest rules state the entry cannot be enclosed in an envelope or plastic bag. It has to go through the postal system. I brought it to my local post office. The postal clerk carefully hand cancelled the "diaper".

A couple of months went by, and I was notified I had been a winner. Went to the post office to thank the clerks for bringing me good luck.

"I'm so relieved," the clerk said. "Didn't have the heart to tell you, but it was sent back here the following day. Since it hadn't been marked "Return to Sender", I put it back in the delivery bin. I didn't think it would ever make it to the destination."

Later that summer, I was at the post office and the clerk told me she and her family had traveled to Washington DC for vacation. They visited the National Postal Museum at the Smithsonian (the original contest sponsor). She told me my envelope was in a display case.

"I was so excited when I saw your envelope in the case. I told everyone around me, I cancelled that envelope!"  :-D