Mimeographs, Rotary Phones and Typewriters

I was going over my list of things to do and I'd actually written:

4. Run off scripts for the play

Hello! In what century am I living?!!"
If you are over 40 you might know what "run off" means in this context!
I chuckled and was reminded of what Sr Mary Martha wrote in her blog recently. I paraphrased (don't I always?) Here it is:

We don't mimeograph anymore. That's good, because I think people enjoyed inhaling the mimeograph ink way too much. On the other hand, the teachers and kids were almost always in a good mood.

You know, when I was little one of the big reasons I wanted to be a teacher was so I could run that mimeograph machine and pass out those lovely purply pages while deeply reveling in that school fragrance.

This whole mini flash back got me thinking. Most kids today don't know what rotary phones and typewriters look like -- much less how they work. I must throw in this small fact -- my 8 year old son uses my rotary phone routinely. It is avocado green and was the "cooolest" thing when I was in Jr. High. (remember Jr. High?)
Anyway, his friends think he is a genius for knowing how to work it.
Isn't it funny how people still say, "dial" and "type"?


As a new acquaintance, Walter, said to me, "Star Trek communicators are flip phones and phasers are used for lasiks surgery." I answered, "Yep, and when Maxwell Smart talked on his shoe little did we know we woud ever have even a phone without a cord!"

Here is an interesting question. What are some things we routinely use in 2010 that will be obsolete when elementary school students are 40?