By Staff
Leada DeVaney, Editor
When I was seven years old, I won a calculator in Sunday School.
That was the last thing I have ever won in my life and thus, it stands out in my mind, at least partially.
I don't remember why they were giving away a calculator, though I do know it was one of those things where they draw your name and give you a prize. I guess you could say it was a door prize for coming to Sunday School, which I guess could also be interpreted as a bribe, something that's fine when you're 7.
For whatever reason they were giving it away, and somehow I won it. I loved that calculator, mainly because it was shaped like an owl and had one green eye and one red eye. It even had a game and if you got the answer right, the green eye would light up. If the answer was wrong, the red eye would shine.
It was a 1970s version of the video game.
That calculator, and the fact that it was the first and last thing I've ever won, was on my mind Sunday when I drove home from an event in Huntsville. The event was a bridal show (yes, I broke down and went to a bridal show. Scary, I know) and included in the festivities were literally hundreds of giveaways. If I'm completely honest, they were the main reason I went.
OK. If I'm completely and totally honest it was the giveaways and the prospect of free cake, but that's a whole different story.
Someone who had been to the show before had won three of the doorprizes and I thought certainly I would walk away with at least one. I sat through the entire fashion show (there's only so many different ways you can make a white dress look) in hopes that I indeed would be present to win.
The announcer approached the microphone and said each person present should reach under their seat and if they find a card with a number, they were the winner of a door prize from the assigned booth.
I reached.
I reached again.
I tilted the chair back and took a look.
No card.
No door prize.
All around me, there were people jumping up and down and celebrating because they had one this basket or this prize.
I had nothing. I gathered my collection of free brochures (the one thing I did take from the show) and grabbed a piece of chocolate cake and headed for the door.
I was a bridal show loser.
Oh well. I'm sure I can find my old owl calculator somewhere. With a new set of batteries, I may get those eyes blazing again.