I’m spending my days deep into cutting, packing, prepping to ship, printing, binding, prepping to ship, an enormous amount of monographs and handouts and interfacings and assorted products to have available while I’m teaching in California. With 17 actual days of teaching over the month of February, at something like seven different venues, it isn’t a wonder I’ve had stress related angst and digestive upset for the past couple of weeks. I have spread sheets and charts, and cross referenced notes, and every time another email comes in I rework the charts and alter the numbers.
I will say that this isn’t my most favorite part of my job. Truth be told, I hate this. But it is part of the job, and needs to be addressed, and because of weight limitations on the airline, I have to ship everything ahead. And since it is going to the west coast, I have to leave more than a week for things to arrive UPS. So I do it, and try not to be too cranky, and I’m grateful my daughter can help out for the last few days before she returns to school.
So I have nothing interesting or creative to say. I’ve spent the better part of the last two days, updating lectures, updating PowerPoint and Word files to .pptx and .docx files, so I can do more interesting things with images, like create shadows. And because my PowerPoint files have become so unwieldy, I’ve started new folders for all the stuff for 2013. There are about 15 versions alone of my keynote address. Sometimes it takes me a half hour just to identify the one I actually want to use. Is it the 15 minute version? The hour version? The hour and a half version? The version with more sewing than weaving? Is it the version with images from 1960 which I did when I did the keynote in Ontario a couple of years ago?
Going through old files is sort of like going through old photo albums. Once in awhile I see something too good not to pull out and put somewhere else. While trying to figure out which of the 15+ keynote address files is the one I want to use for the upcoming pair of lectures in California, I came across this priceless slide and will leave you with this instead. I only have 238 more handouts and monographs to print and bind (no exaggeration, I just counted the spread sheet, I need a large bottle of wine… And another round of ink cartridges…) So I’m off to work…
1969 8th grade class trip to New York City
Vest and Skirt from one of the popular fibers, “Naugahyde”:
A marketing campaign of the 1960s and 1970s asserted humorously that Naugahyde was obtained from the skin of an animal called a “Nauga”. The campaign emphasized that, unlike other animals, which must typically be slaughtered to obtain their hides, Naugas can shed their skin without harm to themselves. -Wikipedia
From the mimeograph given to all students traveling to NYC on the 8th grade field trip…
ed. Astute reader Uarda noted that the above purple text was not from a mimeograph, but from a “ditto”, who knew? I did a quick check on Wikipedia, and wow, she was right, here is a synopsis of the difference for those who really want to be informed!
Mimeographs
1918 illustration of a mimeograph machine.
The mimeo machine (mimeograph) invented by Albert Blake Dick in 1884 used heavy waxed-paper “stencils” that a pen or a typewriter cut through. The stencil was wrapped around the drum of the (manual or electrical) machine, which forced ink out through the cut marks on the stencil. The paper had a surface texture (like bond paper), and the ink was black and odorless. A person could use special knives to cut stencils by hand, but handwriting was impractical, because any closed loop letterform would cut a hole and thus print as a black blob. The technology was soon refined to control this problem, also allowing the use of typewriters to prepare mimeograph masters. If the user put the stencil on the drum wrong-side-out, the copies came out mirror-imaged.
Spirit duplicators
The ditto machine (spirit duplicator) sold by Ditto, Inc. beginning in 1910, used two-ply “spirit masters” or “ditto masters”. The top sheet could be typed, drawn, or written upon. The second sheet was coated with a layer of colored wax. The pressure of writing or typing on the top sheet transferred colored wax to its back side, producing a mirror image of the desired marks. (This acted like a reverse of carbon paper.) The wax-supply sheet was then removed and discarded, and the other sheet (containing the images) was fastened onto the drum of the (manual or electrical) machine, with the waxed (back, or reverse-image) side out.
The usual wax color was aniline purple, a cheap, moderately durable pigment that provided good contrast, though other colors were also available. Unlike mimeo, ditto had the useful ability to print multiple colors in a single pass, which made it popular with cartoonists. Spirit duplicators were incapable of double-sided printing, since the saturation of the paper with solvent inherent to the process would destroy a previously printed image. One well-made ditto master could at most print about 500 copies, far fewer than a mimeo stencil could manage. To produce further copies, an entirely new master would have to be reconstructed in the same way as the original master.
Notoriously, dittoed images would gradually fade with exposure to light, limiting their usability for permanent labels and signage. Dittoed copies now pose a serious challenge to archivists responsible for document textual and artistic preservation.
-Wikipedia
As a beneficiary of this trip I offer up my sincere appreciation of all your hard work.
I love the picture and the mimeographed notes! I wonder if you have readers who don’t know what mimeographed sheets are? I will never forget the way those fresh pages smelled and how magical the whole process seemed.
And your outfit: ever the stylish and proper youngster, you!
And thank you for all you do related to your teaching efforts. I am also most appreciative!
I join my fellow PenWAGer in expressing much apprciation for the opportunity to meet and hear you. We are in for a real treat!
Hysterical. I remember the ad. I also remember bumper stickers saying “Save the Nauga”. I well remember garterbelts, veil hats and mandatory gloves. Alas…in 1969 I was graduating college as a Studio Art Major March for Peace Hippie. Probably the kind of person your school would have warned you about. And yet….here we all are in the future we did not anticipate. But…Still weaving after all these years…..actually since 1956! Eek!!! Time …invisible as air….faster than lightening.
But hey…you looked good. And Naugus are NOT easy to sew….no matter HOW you get the hides/hydes off of them. 🙂
OMG I remember those mimeograph sheets – and heaven help you if you made a typo – you couldn’t correct it! And running them off was oh so fun…clunk, clunk…for hours on end…
You were rockin’ that outfit, girlfriend…without being “fad” of course!!
I have an original ‘nauga’ doll — ask to see it when you get here — they are crazy and would probably be a global success today, too! Mimeograph paper, the smells, stains on hands, and fading papers — such memories. The list of what was acceptable clothing is a hoot! Take care in all of the packing and OK to mail stuff here, if need be.
Did we behave better when we were dressed ‘up’?
Don’t know how you do it. It is 2 am and I am still copying handbooks for a basic class for tomorrow! I thought I had this almost done at 2pm this aft.
Oh wow, Naugahyde, I remember the stuff. My parents had our sofa recovered in it, because they thought it would hold up to the abuse of 3 kids. We called it the Nauga-beast!
Yes….. the smell of the mimeo paper and the danger of the single edged razor blade you used to VERY CAREFULLY scrape the typo wax off the paper before replacing it with the correct letter. No matter how careful you were, it always left a blurry smudge, a silent witness to your careless typing!
Wow…. that was a real memory jolt! Thanks for sharing, Daryl.
You look both cool and elegant in your outfit! Yep, I remember both Naugahyde and mimeographs. However, the reference to “veil hat” in 1969 is really out of date by a decade. So not hip, your teachers. Or where they just looking ahead to today’s retro trend?
Have a great trip, Daryl! Your students are so lucky to have you.
@ Louisa, The veil hat reference makes sense when you consider I went to Catholic School and I had European nuns as teachers. They were definitely NOT hip!
Wow! I guess I go back further than any of you. That is not mimeograph. It is ditto. Mimeo is black ink. Ditto is purple and corrections had to be made by scraped the ink off the back of the page so new correct letter could be typed. Every thing and every one was purple. And it did not come off easily.
Not only is it fun to see that mimeographed text, I am amazed that you still have it! I see that Uarda says that it’s not mimeograph, but that’s what all of the teachers I worked with called it. And she’s right-It does not come off easily!
I edited the blog post to include a definition of mimeograph vs. ditto machine, thanks to astute reader Uarda! Mea culpa, all these years I thought I had a mimeograph! They were apparently competing machines, the precursor to the war between Apple and Microsoft!
A little more than a decade before you (and not a product of parochial schools), I was sent off to college in Ohio with a hat (with veil!) and gloves. We had a freshman-week tea/greet&grin at the college president’s house, so I wore my hat (with veil) and gloves. It turned out to be a very bohemian college (approx same as hippie, just earlier), and that was the first & last time I wore the hat (with veil) and gloves.
I do not care what you call the copy machines-I used them both and like my apple and PC much better. Thank you time and great minds. I wish I lived in California so I could take more classes from you Daryl. I know Feb. 14 is coming soon and my snow man (out side and fake) is holding a glittering heart is just for you! Have a wonderful trip and stay healthy. Pack lots of AirBorne or something.
You have just made me reach far back to the early 40’s when i used both memiograph and ditto to cut the stencils for our church bullentins. I was constantly colored black or purple!! No amount of soap would wash it off. Yea gads, where did you come up with the photo? I had forgotten our venture into fake leather!! Where have the years gone???
Speaking as a 1965 model human male, I can attest to the plethora of dittos that floated thru the American public school system in the 1970s, and to the inherent solvent smell as well. (Wonder how much of an effect all those aromatic hydrocarbons had on our young and impressionable brains…) The mimeograph copies that my mother made for the church were bolder and seemed better quality than the school-printed dittos. I also remember the emergence of the first Xerox copies, and the different smell they had, and the varying consistencies of paper. Interesting article. I dig the picture. I… Read more »