Wednesday Medley~The Humble Paper Clip

A Clipped Together Wednesday Medley...

Hosted by  our friend, Terri.

Everything below this line is from the National Day Calendar website.

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NATIONAL PAPERCLIP DAY

National Paperclip Day is observed each year on May 29. Yes, even the paperclip has its own day of honor. It is about that well-known piece of curved wire that keeps our papers together and helps keep us organized.

While there are much earlier claims to the invention of the paperclip, according to the Early Office Museum, the first patent for a “bent wire paper clip” was presented to Samuel B. Fay in the United States in 1867. The original intention of Fay’s clip was to attach tickets to fabric. However, U.S. patent 64,088 recognized that it could also be used to attach papers together.

There were as many as 50 others that received patents for similar designs prior to 1899. One other notable name receiving a patent for his paperclip design in the United States was Erlman J. Wright in 1877. At that time, his clip was advertised for use in fastening newspapers.

The Gem paperclip, which was most likely in production in Britain in the early 1870s by The Gem Manufacturing Company, was never patented. It is the most common type of wire paper clip and is still in use today. It was introduced to the United States around 1892 and in 1904, Cushman & Denison registered a trademark for the “Gem” name in connection with paper clips. Paperclips are still sometimes called “Gem clips.”

Today, paperclips come in various sizes, shapes, and colors and can make your paperwork look more fun and lively.

Paperclips are not just for holding papers together. There are many other things that you can do with them! 

Replace a zipper tab 

Unclog a spray bottle 

Unclog a single serve coffee maker 

Hem holder 

Emergency hooks for broken necklaces 

The Paper Clip Project

During World War II this small, universal office supply provided a visual method of protest at a time when any outward signs of objection could be dangerous, even in familiar company.

Early in the war, Norwegians were particularly persistent in their development of symbols. The paper clip represented “sticking together” for a time until the Nazis caught on and banned the wearing of paper clips.

According to a March 5, 1941, Provo, Utah newspaper article (The Daily Herald), the Norwegians switched to new symbols as quickly as the bans could be issued.

In 1998, a group of middle school students led by language arts teacher Sandra Roberts and associate principal David Smith began a project through a Holocaust education class. The voluntary after-school class, Whitwell Middle School principal Linda Hooper’s idea, would be the foundation for developing tolerance and diversity.

Inspired by the story of the protesting Norwegians and their paper clips, the students began to collect six million paper clips – one paper clip representing one Jew who perished during the Holocaust. Adults today still wrestle with how the Holocaust could occur. Imagine middle school students trying to understand the magnitude of such an event on humanity.

The Paper Clip Project gained international attention and by 2001 the students collected more than 30 million paper clips. The school dedicated a Children’s Holocaust Memorial which displays an authentic German railcar filled with a portion of the paper clips.

For more information on this inspiring story, the book and film that followed visit www.oneclipatatime.org

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Everything above this line is from the National Day Calendar website.

1. Wow! Had you ever heard of the Holocaust project involving paperclips? I never had but I hail the school Principal for her insight and motivation for inspiring her students to become so enamored with this project.. I imagine that compassionate attitude toward the Holocaust will affect those students their whole lives!

2. Have you ever created a paperclip chain? I freely admit to creating a paperclip chain. How long did it get? I vaguely remember making one and it seems to me it was around 6 feet long.

3. I use paperclips as hooks at Christmas time to put ornaments on the tree. Works like a charm!! What is something you used a paperclip for, other than holding papers together? I used to unbend them and create an "L', tie them on a string that was connected to decorative posters or items the students made like, for example, Japanese lanterns, then by placing the L over the end of a yard stick I could carefully raise it up to the ceiling and hook the "L" over the metal strip that held the ceiling panels in place.. The students loved to have their artwork suspended above us!

reasonable facsimile

4. I am amazed at the shapes and colors of paperclips available. I found my favorite... share your favorite with us here!

I love these little piggies

5. Say goodbye to May on this last Wednesday of May. Be poetic if you will, or simply bid it adieu. 

GOODBYE, OLE MAY 

IT SEEMED YOU CAME ALONG TO STAY

SO TAKE YOUR HOT AND HUMID DAYS

AND MAKE WAY FOR JUNE SO WE CAN PLAY

OH, YEAH, THE TEACHERS CAN'T WAIT TO GET AWAY! 

6. Tell us something about your week so far, please! Hubs and I started the week well. I cooked side dishes to go along what my friend's delicious BBQ and Brambleberry Pie and then delivered the food to our Sunday school teacher's home after church. His wife is recuperating from a hip replacement, and we had a most marvelous visit...later that night hubs and I were invited to our friends' cookout . They live on the mountain and the view and the breeze was most exhilarating. The friendship was even better!

Last night we went to a local high school to attend a wonderful concert-a tribute to Memorial Day and honoring the 75th Anniversary of D-Day put on by the Community Band. A neighbor who plays the trombone invited us and I'm so glad because it was truly wonderful! 

A story the band leader shared.. as a brash, hotshot, young college student was talking to his dad, this song came on the radio. His dad said, "that is such a great song!" and the young man retorted, "oh, it really isn't that great musically."

At that dad replied," Well, I am not educated musically, but I do know this.. when our men, half dead,many wounded,so tired they could barely keep their feet under them were plodding down the lane toward a nearby liberated French village, upon hearing that song playing on a Victrola in town, they hitched themselves up and marched proudly into town because of how that music made them feel!"

Have a great rest of your May of 2019!