From Fred Gissoni, Louisville, KY:

Last night I read the March issue of the Matilda Ziegler Magazine, and it made me think back to the first issues I read in the 1930's. They arrived not in envelopes but rolled and in a paper sleeve. They were produced in Monsey, NY, not far from my home in Northvale, NJ. The cover page of the braille edition had braille near the top and bottom and raised print in the center. Successful Blind was a monthly feature in those days, along with Current Events and Special Notices.

When Hitler marched into Austria March 1938, the Ziegler had a map showing significant locations. When Italy invaded Albania, when Hitler entered Czechoslovakia, when he invaded Poland and later The Netherlands, France and Belgium and then Norway and Denmark, the Ziegler published maps that gave readers an idea of where things were happening. During World War II, the Ziegler showed us maps of the South Pacific, Africa, Australia, China and just about anywhere and everywhere important things were happening.

In the 1950's, Useful Tools, Services and Aids was a monthly feature written by Chick Ritter of the American Foundation for the Blind.

The calendar published each year in the December issue has made me aware of the movements of the moon and their relation to tides.

In the early 1940's, someone sent me a 1937 issue of the Moon Type edition of the Ziegler. I had fun playing with it, learning the Moon symbols along with some of the contractions used in that alphabet. But I never was much good at it.

I don't know if this is of any interest to anybody, but in this time of remembering Mrs. Ziegler's gift, I thought I'd toss in these memories.