How Old Are We?

[IslandHopper]

Xerox machines were just coming in, but the school didn't have one yet, so I ran off my tests on a "ditto" machine, technically known as a spirit duplicator -- the freshly-made copies still smelled like the solvent used, so the kids would "sniff" them.

Ah, memories...I smelled my share of freshly made "ditto" copies in elementary school. I remember the ink on the dittos was always blue. I wonder if the ink was toxic?

[SelleckLover]

Awesome Sophia--most cars were made like tanks back then so that was a very fitting name.

[MPS]

I was also one of the ditto sniffing kids. Born in 1954 (wow, that was a long time ago).

My first car was a 1972 Thunderbird with a 429 cubic inch engine. I bought it when I went to college in 1972. My father thought it would be a safe car. He had NO idea how fast it would go.
(Think "455 Rocket" by Kathy Mattea)

Anyway...the point of this was the shock value of gas going up so much that it cost $7.00 dollars to fill my 22 gallon tank! That's right; up to 32 cents a gallon. Not so bad if you made more than $1.65 an hour, which was a touch above minimum wage back then.

[SelleckLover]

Wow, MPS...a blast from the past! Gas prices! When I started driving in 1967 I used to buy a dollar's worth of gas and that would last me all week, with gas being approx. 25 cents a gallon! My first apartment was $60 a month and that included utilities! (Circa 1970) Gone are the days.....

[Carol the Dabbler]

I smelled my share of freshly made "ditto" copies in elementary school. I remember the ink on the dittos was always blue. I wonder if the ink was toxic?

I have no idea about the ink, but the solvent was. According to Wikipedia, it was "typically a 50/50 mix of isopropanol and methanol." Hopefully, you, Carmen, and MPS didn't destroy more than a few brain cells with your "habit"!

The "ink" (which I've just learned was actually colored wax -- see that Wikipedia article above) was usually a shade of purple/blue, but I've also used magenta and a few other colors.

[IslandHopper]

Thanks for the info Carol. This discussion about the dittos reminds me of a quick scene in "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" (I think) where a teacher (Mr. Hand???) hands out tests or quizes, and all of the students sniff the paper. I guess everyone did that.

[Carmen]

Carol!!! What do you mean by "destroyed brain cells?!?"

That`s probably why the more I learn, the more I can`t rember, wait - rmimber - no !! remember

[golfmobile]

I too remember typing on that "wax" paper where the impression of the key "cut" out the wax, then strapping the typed page on the roller and rolling out the copies that had that purple ink. We called the machine a "mimeograph machine."

Does anyone else remember the first telephone "faxes"? This would have been around 1971, I'd guess. It worked with a roller spinning and the text rolled down the page, tiny line by tiny line, somewhat similar to the grooves on a vinyl record except in black and white and shaping the text as it went instead of making a groove in the paper. It took about an hour to get one page.

And remember the rules that you shouldn't look directly at the light going past the glass on the early photocopy (Xerox) machines because "it would blind you!"???

My first car was a 1970 American Motors Hornet, gold, four-door, NO frills, no A/C, rubber floors, bench vinyl seat (STICKY in summer with no a/c -- I think that's why I still don't like leather seats!) I think I did "splurge" and got a factory-installed radio, though. I got "half" of it for graduation from college (I had to pay the second half). I learned to drive in a 1963 Volkswagen bus with that tall shift stick between the front seats -- and this stupid VW wouldn't go over 55-60 mph and would drop to 40 mph on even a slight hill.

We were so innocent -- and so lucky to have grown up then. My family virtually was "Father Knows Best," "Leave It to Beaver," etc. -- I wanted it to be "My Friend Flicka" or "Fury" because I wanted a horse . . . . but we didn't live on a ranch.

I remember being excited about watching the Mickey Mouse Club on TV every afternoon, Annette, Karen, Cubby, Darlene. Loved this production's version of "Spin and Marty" (boy, did I want Skyrocket!) and "The Hardy Boys." Is any of this stuff out on DVD???

golf

[MPS]

The first season of Spin and Marty is out on DVD. My husband received it as a gift form one of our daughters last year. It may have come from Amazon, but I'm not sure. It was great fun watching it. We would watch 4 or 5 episodes in a row.

[N1095A]

I just turned 38. I guess (according to TM) I'm way too old to start a professional baseball career.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I too remember typing on that "wax" paper where the impression of the key "cut" out the wax, then strapping the typed page on the roller and rolling out the copies that had that purple ink. We called the machine a "mimeograph machine."

Same era, different machine, different process. A mimeograph (which you describe quite accurately) *did* use ink, a very nasty, gloppy ink, as I recall. Typing on the stencil did indeed cut away the wax coating, leaving a porous membrane that the ink could be squeezed through by the roller.

I've used both mimeograph and ditto machines. Ditto is much easier, but you can't get more than a couple hundred legible copies off of one master, whereas with a mimeograph stencil, you can keep making copies as long as you have any ink left. With a mimeo, you can make much more professional looking copies, too.

No, I don't recall those early fax machines. I have used a Telex and a TWX, though, which are basically big clunky electric typewriters attached to a phone line. You can just sit there and type in real-time, and the text will be reproduced at the other end -- but to make better use of your telephone-line time, you could pre-punch the message onto a paper tape, then feed it through the machine (at 10 characters per second) once you're "on line." Fax machines did those in, too.

[Sam]

Hi Carol,

I see two others besides myself in the 40-49 bracket.So unless one of them speaks up,I have the not so coveted "Dinosaur Award"...Big 60 this year.

[golfmobile]

Sam,

You have some competition for the Dinosaur Award. Exactly WHEN will you turn 60?

golf

[SelleckLover]

Didn't you guys know? Sixty is the new forty! (Okay, not really but it sounds good to THIS dinosaur that is going to be 57 in August.) LOL

[Sam]

Golf,

Big 60 this September.