I am old - Mimeograph copies!

[wdw4us2]

I had tried to explain dittos to my daughter once, she didn't understand what the big deal was.

Then one day, the movie Teachers was on and there was a scene with the mimeograph machine and I told her that's what dittos were! She looked at me as though I was crazy.

 

[Towncrier]

When I was little (early to mid-60s) my dad was the pastor of a very small Baptist church. He'd bring us up to the church with him on Saturdays. He would mimeograph the church bulletins and we would fold them!

That sounds so familiar. My dad would spend hours each month composing the church newsletter. He would type up the mimeograph stencils and then literally cut and paste clipart into the pages. I guess you could consider it the desktop publishing method of the mid 20th century.

As others have pointed out, mimeography and dittos are completely different beasts. I recall the girls who helped in the office would sometimes come to class with purple hands from handling all of the copies that they made.

And, for the record, I sniffed my fresh dittos too.

Link to Wikipedia article on mimeograph machines: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimeograph
Link to Wikipedia article about spirit duplicators (aka ditto machines): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_duplicator

 

[mickeyboat]

What did they smell like? I can't imagine ink smelling good.

They smelled sweet.

Denae

 

[amy4bruce]

Not only do I remember dittos (loved the smell!) but, in the mid to late Sixties, my father's office had a very early xerox machine. No, it wasn't xerox, it was some other company. To make copies, you took the picture, the paper would come out a little like Polaroid film, you'd run it through a developer and then pull it apart.

Since I started elementary school in the late 1950s, I am feeling SO OLD!

 

[TheGoofster]

I remember those and was in grade school in the 70's. Only we called them dittos.

Ditto, uh, I mean, me too!!!

 

[ckmommy]

I loved that smell. Think Kinkos has a ditto machine--I need a fix--after 20 years.....

 

[Carl]

Dittos and Mimeographs are different. The ditto machine uses a very smelly liquid and soaks the paper with it so the "ink" on the master ditto will come off onto the paper as it goes through the machine. These were purple in most cases. The Mimeograph machine used a stencil. The stencil was a special film substance which a person typed on. When typed on the areas where the keys hit were cut through so that when the stencil was run through the machine the ink in the machine would come through the stencil and print on the paper. In other words, the mimeograph did use ink, the ditto did not. I don't think that people realized in those days how dangerous liquids like ditto fluid were to people. I had a ditto machine which I kept in my bedroom in the 60's and developed high blood pressure and dizzy spells. I believe that the ditto fluid was a great contributor to the problem.

 

[TheGoofster]

Too funny. My wife just walked into my office (while I was reading this thread) so I asked her if she ever had ditto's in school. The first thing she said was that the loved to hold them up to her nose and take a deep whiff.
I guess some memories are universal.

 

[GeorgeG]

I remember them as both dittos and mimeographs. Never knew what the difference was, though. It was probably similar to how we still call refrigerators ice boxes. We had them through high school (graduated in 1964) and I recall them being a hand-cranked device. I didn't really care for the smell.

I also remember the first form of fax we had at work. It was called a Quip and it used special paper that fit around a drum with a stylus. You dialed a regular phone and set the receiver in some sort of foam cradle. That really smelled awful and it took several minutes to send or receive one page.

I think carbon paper managed to hang around well into the photo-copy days, though.

As long as we're reminiscing, who remembers fountain pens and the "new and improved" version with cartridges?

I'm suddenly feeling old... now where did I put my pencil box?

 

[Chattyaholic]

I graduated in 1975 and during my senior year I was on the co-op work program so went to classes in the morning, and worked in the office at one of the elementary schools in the afternoons.

I ran the mimeograph machine almost daily, and I too, loved the smell!!

And there was another machine where we had to type on special blue and black paper then you had to attach that to a machine with a roller and it used some kind of ink to make the copies, I can't remember the name of the machine though.

 

[Lassie Lynne]

And there was another machine where we had to type on special blue and black paper then you had to attach that to a machine with a roller and it used some kind of ink to make the copies, I can't remember the name of the machine though.

Yeah......that was the one that we always used in Jr. and High School to run our School Newspapers off (only they were on regular paper, legal size). I remember when I was an office aide and had to run that machine and the ditto machine. The above mentioned machine made such a mess if you squeezed too much ink out. The ditto machine, tho', was fun to run, it was easy and I smelling the freshly made copies!!!

 

[CapeCodTenor]

I remember that smell as well...mmmm, I loved that smell. My mom was a school teacher, and after school I would help her run copies off the mimeograph machine.

 

[Hixski]

Ah yes, I remember those.

The teacher would come in with a fresh stack of copies and when she passed them out, the first thing we'd all do is press them to our faces and inhale.

I guess that is how everyone got high in grade school. Sniffing the mimeo copies. Been there, done that.

 

[Cindy's Mom]

Remember that they feel cold too/ or was it wet? I love that smell, I can picture the room where my grade school had the roller machine.

 

[Barb]

What a great memorry! I loved that smell, too! We all did!

 

[SwedishMeatball]

I always sniffed my dittos.

That would be a great tag.

Another one that loved the smell and purple was my favorite color.

 

[mantysk8coach]

But then there were days when she brought out the filmstrip machine. Those things were so BORING. Unless you were picked to be the one to advance the slides. Then you felt special.

Yes! But then there was the pressure of making sure you were paying attention to the "beeps" on the tape, because heaven forbid, if that tape beeped and you didn't turn the slide within a millisecond, the entire class would yell "TURN!"
And God help you if you accidently turned backward instead of forward! Good luck trying to get caught back up.

Turning the filmstrip was always stressful for me!

Ahhh...flimstrips. Kids today totally don't know what they are missing!

 

[UrsulasMyHero]

We called them Dittos too... and I was just going thru some stuff at my mom's house and found sheets in my toy box from the late 70's early 80's that were mimeographs. Too Funny!

 

[stevenpensacola]

But then there were days when she brought out the filmstrip machine. Those things were so BORING. Unless you were picked to be the one to advance the slides. Then you felt special.

Remember the filmstrips which had a record you would play while watching the filmstrip?....."the number one export of Peru is cotton" beeep....all the kids in the class...."turn it" then "focus".

Was there anything better than coming into class and seeing the Bell and Howell Movie Projector set up....and the movie reel was about the size of a dinner plate which meant the movie would last at least 1/2 hour?

 

[famofsix]

wouldn't it be great if Yankee Candle had a purple ditto candle?
Or better yet a new bath and body works fragrance! Then you could bathe in dittos.