Keeping it moronically light today. A friend and I were chatting about grants we were applying for and she informed me, “I won a $500 Jewel gift card once 17 years ago and I still count it among my highest accomplishments.” In addition to most accurately guessing the # of candy hearts in a jar in (4th grade; doesn’t count because I don’t like candy hearts) one time I won 2 Elvis Costello concert tickets by calling into a radio station. I asked three friends if they wanted to come with, then realized I had not won four like I thought and had to awkwardly walk that back. But it was still cool.
My friend and I had just moved to NYC and were temping and broke so she decided to try out for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. I went to watch her compete and then decided to take the entry test myself. We both won about $12,000. You have to pay a shocking amount in taxes but I paid some rent and took my boyfriend to Costa Rica on what remains one of the best vacations of my life. And it still makes a great party story almost 15 years later.
My first job after college was in an accounting office. One of our coworkers was running a big fundraiser at her church and we all bought tickets and went to support her. There was a big group of us and for some reason her husband was pretty rude to most of us and seemed not to want us there. At one point he said something dickish to me and I flipped him off, which probably was not great. Anyway his big job at the event was announcing the raffle winners. The big prize was a television and it was awkward/perfect when I won it.
In 7th grade I must have sent in 100 handwritten entries to a Tampax contest to win a trip to the MTV awards. I was going to meet George Michael and I guess fall in love and live happily ever after.
I won a duffel bag. I took it to school every day. Some kid teased me about it every day. Fuck him. I wish I still had it!
Feb 25, 2022·edited Feb 25, 2022Liked by Claire Zulkey
Eighth grade was a banner year for me: I won $103 from my local radio station for being the correct caller during the song of the day, Total Eclipse of the Heart. A few months later, I won first prize in a town- wide 8th grade speech contest and also got my t-shirt design picked as the 8th grade class t-shirt.
I won a raffle for a large box of free burritos from Chipotle while at my first grownup job. I really enjoyed being able to give burritos to all my new coworkers. I was trying to decide whether I feel somewhat embarrassed about this now, but no, I do not. It is still cool and exciting! I worked in a newsroom and free food was its own special currency there.
I also won a Tshirt from a radio station as a kid after my inability to snap led me to guess that as the answer to "x percentage of people can't do this." I felt vindicated for all the times I had to pretend to snap during group skating numbers.
Omg in middle school I would always do the "lucky caller 97" radio contests and one day I won tickets to our local MLB game. I was live on the radio as the winner and when they asked how old I was I said 18 and they laughed at me. But I was worried I had to get a certain age to win! My mom took me downtown to the radio offices to get the tickets and then she let me skip school to go to the game with her. It was so awesome.
You're looking at Alamo's "Millionth Kiosk Customer" (TM)! The desk person wasn't there when I got off the plane in cold MPLS, so I tried an ATM-like checkout machine to retrieve my car (basically, the paperwork part). It was a whopping 5 degrees in the garage outside and the door kept opening, and I just wanted to get into the car and get going. So I sort of ignored the page of the rental contract that said I'd won, spit out by the kiosk, and stuffed it in my bag. Several weeks later Alamo called or wrote me to ask why didn't I get in touch about my prize? A one-week car rental! Which, as it turned out, I later needed, to get to the beach while mine was in the shop. But all they had nearby was a very bland hatchback Kia or something. (I was secretly hoping for a week with a Mini.) I also had to be interviewed for a press release. I know you, as a serious journalist, will want the details and I can provide a second source if you need to fact-check. https://indexarticles.com/business/business-wire/alamo-rent-a-car-celebrates-one-millionth-kiosk-customer/
Back before anyone was on Twitter my husband saw Alaska Airlines tweeted an event at the Trader Vic's and giving away tickets to celebrate their new Oakland to Maui route. We went thinking at minimum it would be some free beer and pupus, but the only other place it was advertised was some oldies radio station, so there was almost no one there. He and I ended up 1) getting our raffle tickets called; and 2) picking out coconuts (yes, real coconuts) out of a giant tub that had 2 free tickets to Maui in them. This was pre-kids, so we took his brother (who sadly drew an empty coconut) and sister-in-law with us and it was great.
I won a rock, paper scissors tournament in college. Winners of a match were decided by 3 out of 5 throws. There was a shocking amount of people who couldn't follow the 1, 2, shoot rhythm of the referee and subsequently would lose a hand or two, so it ended up being surprisingly easy to get to the final round.
I intentionally lead every match with scissors for almost the whole tournament then shook it up in the final match to throw them off. Won the first shot based on that strategy. Gave them one in the second. Won the third. Had the fourth handed to me on technicality after they whiffed rhythm.
I refuse to concede it was just luck that got me there.
In middle school I won a trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum by entering my Mom’s name (had to be 18+ to enter) in a drawing at a new electronics store. We were shocked that we won, and then even more shocked that the Museum was in Cleveland. We stayed in a nice (to me) hotel, went to the Museum and the zoo.
At subsequent post-prom raffles at our Boys and Girls Club, I won a discman that had an aux connection so I could listen to cds in my car and then a TV with a VCR built in! Both so perfect, both so of their time!
As a tween I called into the radio station to win Holiday Pops tickets. You had to be caller 3, and I was caller # 1, #2, and #3 so I guess I was the only one who wanted the tickets. I was still proud of myself.
When I was in second grade, I was at the local department store, Parisians, in Atlanta, GA with my mom and sister, and, we all entered a raffle to win a pair of designer shoes. The designer, Donald Pliner, was there. Guess who won?!?! I'll never forget how when I met him the designer kept staring at my Keds' shoes that I had colored with magic markers.
In 1996 I won tickets to the Z-93 "Z-90-FREE" concert featuring Foreigner, REO Speedwagon and Peter Frampton at the Lakewood Amphitheater in Atlanta. Had a hard time convincing anyone to go with me though...
And I once won $1300 on video poker at the casino in Immokalee, Florida. That impressed my friends a little more.
I won a Sex and the City DVD box set from the local newspaper in 2007. There were some surprisingly hard trivia questions to answer. I entered with my email and with my soon-to-be-husband's email. Of course, his was the one they picked! It was amazing. He had forgotten that I used his email and they called him to interview him with such questions as "What is your favorite season? Which character do you like the best?" He answered them totally seriously and sent them a photo taken on the one day he had a mustache. It was the best!
I won the jellybean jar at a bridal shower once! This was the same year I got married and in fact the bride’s wedding was a week after mine (so we both went to each other’s). What’s funny was that when I introduced myself to her relatives they were like “oh YOU’re the one” as if it was a faux pas to also have a wedding the same year??? The bride and I have been friends since kindergarten and I’m happy to report we still are!
I won a fancy porcelain doll at a fundraiser when I was 7! We still have it LOL. It's huge and sunflower themed. I also won the guess your birthday month carnival game at theme park probably 2 times - bc that is just sheer chance. My husband won $250 1-800 flowers gift card maybe 2 years ago that I benefitted from.
I won a free tuxedo rental at a basketball game raffle in high school. I did not have a prom date and did not particularly need a tuxedo rental. However, I did end up selling the rental to a guy at my school.
When I was in 6th grade in Burbank, CA a local radio station announced on their morning program that in half an hour they were going to be in a SECRET LOCATION giving away 4 tickets to a rockin' night at Disneyland during the Halloween season. That secret location happened to be right across the street from my house, so I begged my mom to let us be late to school to go win the tickets. We were the first ones to figure out the location and won the tickets. I got to take my BFF to Disneyland on a school night and stay out way, way, way too late, and felt like a ROCK STAR at school the next morning.
a yearly supply of cookies from an airline. they sent a different cookie of the month. i won it just by them picking my seat number. but i'll never forget that feeling of delight and surprise when they called my seat. I think I was 10 or 11. Have I won anything since? I don't know. I guess I won some sort of award in college but I forgot all about it and my mother recently had to remind me of it. I think as women we should keep a running list of our wins and every time we feel discouraged, we look at it.
During christmas 2014 (i think), hulu contacted me on twitter to make my Christmas wishes come true and give me a smart TV. I was pretty sure it was a hoax or a phishing attack, my husband was even more sure that was true. But it was from verified twitter. They seemed to be messaging a handful of people to grant their wishes too. I had tweeted around thanksgiving that we were thinking about buying a new TV should i get a smart TV that would have Hulu and Netflix and prime? I had to esign a bunch of documents on Christmas Eve but none of them asked for my social, just that i didn’t work for Hulu and whatever, and they overnighted me a gift card to Best Buy for $800. We bought a big smart lg tv that is still kicking but the smart part no longer supports hulu and we have since attached a roku. My husband is still vaguely stunned it was real!!
I won a Princess Diana TY beanie baby bear in third grade and it was the highlight of my early years. Then when I was 25 I won front row tickets to a Taylor Swift show on Hollywood Blvd for Jimmy Kimmel and, again, highlight.
When I was 9 I won a nationwide coloring contest sponsored by KOA (the RV campground place) and I won a fishing rod. I had zero interest in fishing and convinced a neighbor to buy it from me for $50 which seemed like a fortune at the time!
I loved that movie Oh Brother Where Art Thou? when it came out and entered some trivia contest about it. Ended up winning a can of Dapper Dan pomade. "I'm a Dapper Dan man!"
Feb 25, 2022·edited Feb 25, 2022Liked by Claire Zulkey
We went to a fundraiser / chili cookoff like ten years ago where they had a wine pull. For $10, you picked a wrapped bottle of wine out of a rack. The (douchebag) guy running the wine pull didn't know that you shouldn't let somebody touch a bottle of wine in that scenario, as expensive wine generally comes in increasingly heavy bottles. My wife and I pulled a $300 bottle of Opus One and a $200 bottle of champagne. Tasted like wine.
This brings me to my greatest one that got away story, which was that in college my roommates and I went to McDonalds on a Sunday afternoon when McDonalds was running a million dollar giveaway for the 100th customer to come into a location. Our McDonalds was one of those locations. I drove because I was parked illegally, and the woman who entered the parking and the store immediately after us won a 20 year annuity at $50,000 per year.
If I hadn't been a terrible person who parked illegally one of us would have won.
I won a contest in the local newspaper to guess the winner of (I think) the second or third season of Survivor. The prize was a CD of my choice, so I took advantage and asked the music critic to make me a mix CD. He relished the assignment and the CD was great and introduced me to a lot of bands I still like. (It's still weird to think that as recently as 20 years ago, my third-tier metro's local paper could afford a full-time music critic.)
I also won a DVD of Synecdoche, New York in an AV Club reader raffle, which was ironic because I had seen it in the theater and it made me cry so hard that I had to hide in the bathroom for 20 minutes afterward because I couldn't get it together. It's a good movie, but I did not take advantage of the opportunity to watch it again once it arrived.
I won Billie Eilish trivia on our local radio station (The Current), and my prize was Alanis's Jagged Little Pill cd, and a stack of stickers from The Current. It was awesome.
I won an essay contest when I was about 12. There were three age categories and I was the city-wide winner in my age group. You can imagine how mortified I was when I had to read my essay to a group of adults and had my picture in the paper.
A few years ago, my husband and I were at a local international festival. There were tents with food from at least 12-15 different countries. Amazing. The event was also a fundraiser for the church. They were doing a raffle of course. My husband was preparing to buy one ticket for $10, but I encouraged him to get 3 for $20. A friend's girlfriend said a little blessing over our tickets and away we went.
Imagine the delight of getting the call saying we won the top prize. What was that top prize, you ask? A wheelbarrow of booze! Easily a dozen fifths, some beer, wine, mixers, a lemon or two. We are still drinking from the stash. Amazing! I like to think we won from one of the extra two tickets I made him buy.
My friend and I had just moved to NYC and were temping and broke so she decided to try out for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. I went to watch her compete and then decided to take the entry test myself. We both won about $12,000. You have to pay a shocking amount in taxes but I paid some rent and took my boyfriend to Costa Rica on what remains one of the best vacations of my life. And it still makes a great party story almost 15 years later.
My first job after college was in an accounting office. One of our coworkers was running a big fundraiser at her church and we all bought tickets and went to support her. There was a big group of us and for some reason her husband was pretty rude to most of us and seemed not to want us there. At one point he said something dickish to me and I flipped him off, which probably was not great. Anyway his big job at the event was announcing the raffle winners. The big prize was a television and it was awkward/perfect when I won it.
In 7th grade I must have sent in 100 handwritten entries to a Tampax contest to win a trip to the MTV awards. I was going to meet George Michael and I guess fall in love and live happily ever after.
I won a duffel bag. I took it to school every day. Some kid teased me about it every day. Fuck him. I wish I still had it!
Eighth grade was a banner year for me: I won $103 from my local radio station for being the correct caller during the song of the day, Total Eclipse of the Heart. A few months later, I won first prize in a town- wide 8th grade speech contest and also got my t-shirt design picked as the 8th grade class t-shirt.
I won a raffle for a large box of free burritos from Chipotle while at my first grownup job. I really enjoyed being able to give burritos to all my new coworkers. I was trying to decide whether I feel somewhat embarrassed about this now, but no, I do not. It is still cool and exciting! I worked in a newsroom and free food was its own special currency there.
I also won a Tshirt from a radio station as a kid after my inability to snap led me to guess that as the answer to "x percentage of people can't do this." I felt vindicated for all the times I had to pretend to snap during group skating numbers.
This past Thanksgiving I was the 10th caller and won tickets on XRT to see the Lumineers. I am still riding the wave of that win.
Omg in middle school I would always do the "lucky caller 97" radio contests and one day I won tickets to our local MLB game. I was live on the radio as the winner and when they asked how old I was I said 18 and they laughed at me. But I was worried I had to get a certain age to win! My mom took me downtown to the radio offices to get the tickets and then she let me skip school to go to the game with her. It was so awesome.
You're looking at Alamo's "Millionth Kiosk Customer" (TM)! The desk person wasn't there when I got off the plane in cold MPLS, so I tried an ATM-like checkout machine to retrieve my car (basically, the paperwork part). It was a whopping 5 degrees in the garage outside and the door kept opening, and I just wanted to get into the car and get going. So I sort of ignored the page of the rental contract that said I'd won, spit out by the kiosk, and stuffed it in my bag. Several weeks later Alamo called or wrote me to ask why didn't I get in touch about my prize? A one-week car rental! Which, as it turned out, I later needed, to get to the beach while mine was in the shop. But all they had nearby was a very bland hatchback Kia or something. (I was secretly hoping for a week with a Mini.) I also had to be interviewed for a press release. I know you, as a serious journalist, will want the details and I can provide a second source if you need to fact-check. https://indexarticles.com/business/business-wire/alamo-rent-a-car-celebrates-one-millionth-kiosk-customer/
Back before anyone was on Twitter my husband saw Alaska Airlines tweeted an event at the Trader Vic's and giving away tickets to celebrate their new Oakland to Maui route. We went thinking at minimum it would be some free beer and pupus, but the only other place it was advertised was some oldies radio station, so there was almost no one there. He and I ended up 1) getting our raffle tickets called; and 2) picking out coconuts (yes, real coconuts) out of a giant tub that had 2 free tickets to Maui in them. This was pre-kids, so we took his brother (who sadly drew an empty coconut) and sister-in-law with us and it was great.
I won a rock, paper scissors tournament in college. Winners of a match were decided by 3 out of 5 throws. There was a shocking amount of people who couldn't follow the 1, 2, shoot rhythm of the referee and subsequently would lose a hand or two, so it ended up being surprisingly easy to get to the final round.
I intentionally lead every match with scissors for almost the whole tournament then shook it up in the final match to throw them off. Won the first shot based on that strategy. Gave them one in the second. Won the third. Had the fourth handed to me on technicality after they whiffed rhythm.
I refuse to concede it was just luck that got me there.
In middle school I won a trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum by entering my Mom’s name (had to be 18+ to enter) in a drawing at a new electronics store. We were shocked that we won, and then even more shocked that the Museum was in Cleveland. We stayed in a nice (to me) hotel, went to the Museum and the zoo.
At subsequent post-prom raffles at our Boys and Girls Club, I won a discman that had an aux connection so I could listen to cds in my car and then a TV with a VCR built in! Both so perfect, both so of their time!
As a tween I called into the radio station to win Holiday Pops tickets. You had to be caller 3, and I was caller # 1, #2, and #3 so I guess I was the only one who wanted the tickets. I was still proud of myself.
The day I was born my grandfather entered me into a drawing and I won a toaster. 43 years later it is still working.
I won my school spelling bee in third grade!
I won a jar of jellybeans for guessing the # but then my mom used them for potty training bribes for my brother 🥴
When I was in second grade, I was at the local department store, Parisians, in Atlanta, GA with my mom and sister, and, we all entered a raffle to win a pair of designer shoes. The designer, Donald Pliner, was there. Guess who won?!?! I'll never forget how when I met him the designer kept staring at my Keds' shoes that I had colored with magic markers.
In 1996 I won tickets to the Z-93 "Z-90-FREE" concert featuring Foreigner, REO Speedwagon and Peter Frampton at the Lakewood Amphitheater in Atlanta. Had a hard time convincing anyone to go with me though...
And I once won $1300 on video poker at the casino in Immokalee, Florida. That impressed my friends a little more.
I won a Sex and the City DVD box set from the local newspaper in 2007. There were some surprisingly hard trivia questions to answer. I entered with my email and with my soon-to-be-husband's email. Of course, his was the one they picked! It was amazing. He had forgotten that I used his email and they called him to interview him with such questions as "What is your favorite season? Which character do you like the best?" He answered them totally seriously and sent them a photo taken on the one day he had a mustache. It was the best!
I won the jellybean jar at a bridal shower once! This was the same year I got married and in fact the bride’s wedding was a week after mine (so we both went to each other’s). What’s funny was that when I introduced myself to her relatives they were like “oh YOU’re the one” as if it was a faux pas to also have a wedding the same year??? The bride and I have been friends since kindergarten and I’m happy to report we still are!
I won a fancy porcelain doll at a fundraiser when I was 7! We still have it LOL. It's huge and sunflower themed. I also won the guess your birthday month carnival game at theme park probably 2 times - bc that is just sheer chance. My husband won $250 1-800 flowers gift card maybe 2 years ago that I benefitted from.
I won a free tuxedo rental at a basketball game raffle in high school. I did not have a prom date and did not particularly need a tuxedo rental. However, I did end up selling the rental to a guy at my school.
I won a colouring contest at the local video rental store when i was 8... got a free copy of Disney's Fox and the Hound on VHS. Proud moment.....
These are great! Last month I won a lifetime membership to Centr, the workout app. It’s $120 a year so, go me! 😂
When I was in 6th grade in Burbank, CA a local radio station announced on their morning program that in half an hour they were going to be in a SECRET LOCATION giving away 4 tickets to a rockin' night at Disneyland during the Halloween season. That secret location happened to be right across the street from my house, so I begged my mom to let us be late to school to go win the tickets. We were the first ones to figure out the location and won the tickets. I got to take my BFF to Disneyland on a school night and stay out way, way, way too late, and felt like a ROCK STAR at school the next morning.
a yearly supply of cookies from an airline. they sent a different cookie of the month. i won it just by them picking my seat number. but i'll never forget that feeling of delight and surprise when they called my seat. I think I was 10 or 11. Have I won anything since? I don't know. I guess I won some sort of award in college but I forgot all about it and my mother recently had to remind me of it. I think as women we should keep a running list of our wins and every time we feel discouraged, we look at it.
During christmas 2014 (i think), hulu contacted me on twitter to make my Christmas wishes come true and give me a smart TV. I was pretty sure it was a hoax or a phishing attack, my husband was even more sure that was true. But it was from verified twitter. They seemed to be messaging a handful of people to grant their wishes too. I had tweeted around thanksgiving that we were thinking about buying a new TV should i get a smart TV that would have Hulu and Netflix and prime? I had to esign a bunch of documents on Christmas Eve but none of them asked for my social, just that i didn’t work for Hulu and whatever, and they overnighted me a gift card to Best Buy for $800. We bought a big smart lg tv that is still kicking but the smart part no longer supports hulu and we have since attached a roku. My husband is still vaguely stunned it was real!!
I won a Princess Diana TY beanie baby bear in third grade and it was the highlight of my early years. Then when I was 25 I won front row tickets to a Taylor Swift show on Hollywood Blvd for Jimmy Kimmel and, again, highlight.
When I was 9 I won a nationwide coloring contest sponsored by KOA (the RV campground place) and I won a fishing rod. I had zero interest in fishing and convinced a neighbor to buy it from me for $50 which seemed like a fortune at the time!
I loved that movie Oh Brother Where Art Thou? when it came out and entered some trivia contest about it. Ended up winning a can of Dapper Dan pomade. "I'm a Dapper Dan man!"
We went to a fundraiser / chili cookoff like ten years ago where they had a wine pull. For $10, you picked a wrapped bottle of wine out of a rack. The (douchebag) guy running the wine pull didn't know that you shouldn't let somebody touch a bottle of wine in that scenario, as expensive wine generally comes in increasingly heavy bottles. My wife and I pulled a $300 bottle of Opus One and a $200 bottle of champagne. Tasted like wine.
This brings me to my greatest one that got away story, which was that in college my roommates and I went to McDonalds on a Sunday afternoon when McDonalds was running a million dollar giveaway for the 100th customer to come into a location. Our McDonalds was one of those locations. I drove because I was parked illegally, and the woman who entered the parking and the store immediately after us won a 20 year annuity at $50,000 per year.
If I hadn't been a terrible person who parked illegally one of us would have won.
I won a contest in the local newspaper to guess the winner of (I think) the second or third season of Survivor. The prize was a CD of my choice, so I took advantage and asked the music critic to make me a mix CD. He relished the assignment and the CD was great and introduced me to a lot of bands I still like. (It's still weird to think that as recently as 20 years ago, my third-tier metro's local paper could afford a full-time music critic.)
I also won a DVD of Synecdoche, New York in an AV Club reader raffle, which was ironic because I had seen it in the theater and it made me cry so hard that I had to hide in the bathroom for 20 minutes afterward because I couldn't get it together. It's a good movie, but I did not take advantage of the opportunity to watch it again once it arrived.
I won Billie Eilish trivia on our local radio station (The Current), and my prize was Alanis's Jagged Little Pill cd, and a stack of stickers from The Current. It was awesome.
I once won a weekend at a Resort, all meals and drinks included, from our cell phone operator company. It was amazing!
I won an essay contest when I was about 12. There were three age categories and I was the city-wide winner in my age group. You can imagine how mortified I was when I had to read my essay to a group of adults and had my picture in the paper.
I love this thread! I want to love every story!
A few years ago, my husband and I were at a local international festival. There were tents with food from at least 12-15 different countries. Amazing. The event was also a fundraiser for the church. They were doing a raffle of course. My husband was preparing to buy one ticket for $10, but I encouraged him to get 3 for $20. A friend's girlfriend said a little blessing over our tickets and away we went.
Imagine the delight of getting the call saying we won the top prize. What was that top prize, you ask? A wheelbarrow of booze! Easily a dozen fifths, some beer, wine, mixers, a lemon or two. We are still drinking from the stash. Amazing! I like to think we won from one of the extra two tickets I made him buy.