Here's a fun little thread to fact check obscure memories, reminisce about forgotten products or practices or confirm just how old we are getting.....

 

Let me get this ball rolling....

 

Do you remember Spirit Printers/Copiers or more so the papers that came out of them? I dunno maybe it's something my minds made up but I remember in primary school (80's, australia) getting worksheets that were printed in a blur or purple ink that smelled yummy like alcohol or maybe like metho, but they defo smelled AND if you had print room duty when you would puck them up they would be warm. You'd hug them to your chest and sniff them all the way back to class. They disappeared around grade 2 or 3 for me and we got black and white photocopied paper....but oh the spirit printed sheets were awesome.

Do you remember those? Was it just an Aussie thing? Or did my brain just make this shit up?

@notsmokinjoi remember those.  we had a different name for them up here...can't remember exactly what they were called.  you had to make a stencil of the original first and then the print machine pressed the ink to the paper.  we never used the dryer so they were always damp when we got them.  I think we are talking about the same thing.

What a great thread ...

I remember having a pair of these when I was about 10 years old...

I loved my skates ..

 

Who remembers high school typing class?! We were so happy that the new machines had autocorrect 😄

 

 

 

I didn't have such luxury ...I had this.....

1 hour ago, notsmokinjo said:

Do you remember Spirit Printers/Copiers or more so the papers that came out of them? I dunno maybe it's something my minds made up but I remember in primary school (80's, australia) getting worksheets that were printed in a blur or purple ink that smelled yummy like alcohol or maybe like metho, but they defo smelled AND if you had print room duty when you would puck them up they would be warm.

 

Here in the States those were called mimeographs.  We had one at my elementary school.  In spite of the fact that during my schooldays we did get a dot matrix printer, my fifth grade teacher was a mimeograph loyalist.  He was not a fan of all those new-fangled technologies of the mid-eighties.

 

Right around the time my school invested in a state-of-the-art printer, I was just starting my collection of cassette tapes.  The collection grew to an impressive number and I didn't have to spend a fortune...Thanks Columbia House!

@Boo, my mom worked at Columbia Records here and would bring us home all the cassettes we could ask for. Each Christmas we got to make a list of ten each that we wanted too lol

40 minutes ago, jillar said:

Who remembers high school typing class?! We were so happy that the new machines had autocorrect 😄

 

Typing class....the only subject I ever failed....Along comes the internet...touch typing wonder suddenly surfaces.

 

Well I spose technically I failed woodwork, but 2 classes and 11 stitches later can you really blame Mr Hills....he passed me on the condition i never entered his workshop again..he would say I showed up...I'd leave project designs in his pigeon hole and the completed work would appear on my homeroom desk....he even had my music lessons rescheduled to be when woodwork class was...lol.

 

 

Mix tapes.....listening to the radio waiting for 'that' song to come on and trying to start recording just in time....and getting that fricking overlap that was vitually impossible to ignore....I mean to this day my brain things the words "Moomoo town, moomootown, all bound for moo moo town" should immediately follow the last line of Bohemian Rhapsody....lol.

I don't remember those printers from my school days but I do remember 'The Strap'!

Had quite a few up close and personal experiences with that piece of fortified leather!

 

 

Today you can't even look sideways at the little buggers. Back in the day, they'd strap us till our hand had big red welts (or started bleeding).

Had to hide those from the parents or else they'd give us even more punishment for being a screw up 😬

Dot-matrix printers.... as annoying as it was at the time I kinda miss having to tear those holey strip's from the edges of the printer paper....I mean it was someone how a little bit satisfying.

I've not had the wack ....only had board eraser throw at my head ...

I remember dissecting a frog at 13 years ....my one and only sex education 🙁

Yep we had the strap....was phased out while I was in primary school (elementry/middle school ... we just have 3 types of school here... primary (prep to grade 6), secondary (yr 7 to 12... usually called highschool or college) or in some areas we have P-12 which is all the grades in 1 school.

Yep...I copped some cuts (the strap) in my day....Mrs Hussain in grade 3 was strap happy, she would use a ruler but wack you using the edge of it. She'd just keep going until you cracked....she left halfway through the year and never came back, coincidently after she gave Luke C the cuts until his hand bled and he put his teeth through he lip trying not to cracked a sound or tear.

The teacher's and parents always said the same thing before they laid a beating on ya; "This is gonna hurt me more than it's gonna hurt you!"

Oh really? How bout we trade places then? My nemesis was Mr. Sankster in grade 5 I think. He found out I was the one who started the nick-name 'Mr. Gangster'! He apparently didn't like that 🤨

Not sure what's better; corporal punishment as it was back in the day or 'everybody gets a prize and no harsh words, which is the way it is today. Just different I guess as it has been down through the generations.  

 

 

5 hours ago, jillar said:

@Boo, my mom worked at Columbia Records here and would bring us home all the cassettes we could ask for. Each Christmas we got to make a list of ten each that we wanted too lol

 

Cool.  Some people complained about hitting the wall with the Columbia House Record Club.  They said they had all the tapes they wanted and started receiving records they didn't want.  Those people were not thinking about the big picture.  I not only got records for my collection but also gave out cassette tapes as gifts.  I was a kid so I didn't have a lot of disposable income.  I could give folks the gift of music without spending much money; that's a win-win.

 

And continuing our trip down memory lane...Was there a more awesome toy than the Big Wheel?  No...this is not debatable.

 

We got the Principal's paddle when we were bad in elementary school. I was a total nerd back then, honor roll and safety patrol so I didn't have to worry about u lol

 

+1 to mimeographs, IBM Selectric typewriters and mix tapes, for sure! And how about a shared “party line” for phone calls? We split one line with 3 other families when I was growing up. Overheard some funny conversations from the neighbors back in the day… though never as juicy as I hoped.  Guess we all led disappointingly boring lives. All conducted via rotary dial, of course!

 

 

3 hours ago, jillar said:

We were talking about the paddle... Right.

 

 

Edited June 25, 20224 yr by Mac#23

I played on one of these ....no such thing as health and safety ...wonder I didn't break every bone ..

 

@Doreensfree, I was the master of pogo sticks lol! I could jump up stairs, down stairs, one handed, no handed, one hand one foot and I even had the neighbor kids who would lie down on the road for me to jump them! 

I even went so far as to try to set a Guiness World record for longest time jumping but my mom kept calling me in for dinner 🤣

Jillar ...I'm Impressed....wow...that takes some doing ...all I could do is hold on tight and bounce ..

When we were told to come in for dinner ...we had to go in ....

Who knows....what might have been ..🐸