The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less
Ryan, Terry
product information
Condition: New, UPC: 9780743211239, Publication Date: Mon, April 1, 2002, Type: Paperback ,
join & start selling
description
Ohio introduces Evelyn Ryan, an enterprising woman who kept poverty at bay with wit, poetry, and perfect prose during the "contest era" of the 1950s and 1960s.

Stepping back into a time when fledgling advertising agencies were active partners with consumers, and everyday people saw possibility in every coupon, Terry Ryan tells how her mother kept the family afloat by writing jingles and contest entries. Mom's winning ways defied the Church, her alcoholic husband, and antiquated views of housewives. To her, flouting convention was a small price to pay when it came to securing a happy home for her six sons and four daughters. Evelyn, who would surely be a Madison Avenue executive if she were working today, composed her jingles not in the boardroom, but at the ironing board.

By entering contests wherever she found them--TV, radio, newspapers, direct-mail ads--Evelyn Ryan was able to win every appliance her family ever owned, not to mention cars, television sets, bicycles, watches, a jukebox, and even trips to New York, Dallas, and Switzerland. But it wasn't just the winning that was miraculous; it was the timing. If a toaster died, one was sure to arrive in the mail from a forgotten contest. Days after the bank called in the second mortgage on the house, a call came from the Dr Pepper company: Evelyn was the grand-prize winner in its national contest--and had won enough to pay the bank.

Graced with a rare appreciation for life's inherent hilarity, Evelyn turned every financial challenge into an opportunity for fun and profit. From her frenetic supermarket shopping spree--worth $3,000 today--to her clever entries worthy of Erma Bombeck, Dorothy Parker, and Ogden Nash, the story of this irrepressible woman whose talents reached far beyond her formidable verbal skills is told in The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio with an infectious joy that shows how a winning spirit will triumph over the poverty of circumstance.

reviews

Be the first to write a review

member goods

No member items were found under this heading.

notems store

New Money, New America

by Wood, Bryan

Paperback /Paperback

$9.37

Beauty Is a Wound

by Kurniawan, Eka

Paperback /Paperback

$15.71

Happiness and Love

by Dubno, Zoe

Hardcover /Hardcover

The Marksman: A Knight's Tale

by Pistritto, Dominic

Hardcover /Hardcover

$20.21

listens & views

HAR-LARIOUS

by WILLIAMS,HARLAND

COMPACT DISC

out of stock

$8.99

LOST IN A MOMENT

by SHRIFT

COMPACT DISC

out of stock

$15.75

LOUD (BONUS TRACKS) (JPN)

by MAAS,TIMO

COMPACT DISC

out of stock

$22.99

PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS

by PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS

VINYL LP

out of stock

$25.49

Return Policy

All sales are final

Shipping

No special shipping considerations available.
Shipping fees determined at checkout.