Who remembers ditto printed worksheets from their schooldays?

[LNC]

My daughter and I went through my old 7th grade schoolwork today. We had the best time. All the worksheets and tests were in that thin purple ink paper. Some masters were typewritten and some were even handwritten, then copied. It was 1982 - pre photocopier. The teachers used ditto machines. Does anyone else remember?

[bookfiend]

Ahhhh, the smell of the mimeograph (sp?) ink...

[kalanamak]

I loved the smell and bluey color.

[Veritaserum]

I was born in 1980, but I remember purple copies in third grade, possibly later. Those copies had a very distinctive odor!

[LNC]

That is so funny you remember and the smell too! - I completely forgot about it until today. I even had to google to see what it was called.

[BamaTanya]

We still used those when I started teaching in a public school in 1989. The pages would be slightly damp as they came through and the smell lingered. As I recall, we also had a photocopier, but it was awful! Gray streaks ran through the pages and it was out of order as often as it worked. In the following years, we allocated a portion of our teacher supply money for the maintenance of that copier.

 

Actually, our school was struck by lightning and burned one night. The principal heard several explosions coming from my classroom while firefighters worked, and we guessed it was from that fluid I stored in the closet. Or glue jugs. Or paints. :confused:

 

I don't think we ever used mimeograph machines after that. Maybe they were too old to replace?

 

Fun memories of school . . . I hadn't thought of those in a long time. I'll bet I have some stuck in a file somewhere. :D

[mommaduck]

Ahhhh, the smell of the mimeograph (sp?) ink...

:iagree::D

[kalanamak]

Ahhhh, the smell of the mimeograph (sp?) ink...

 

I thought the ditto fluid much nicer than mimeograph ink, so THERE.

[JessReplanted]

me!

[bookfiend]

I thought the ditto fluid much nicer than mimeograph ink, so THERE.

 

Which one had the big round drum that you turned with a crank handle? If you were the good student, you got to go make copies.

[tex-mex]

I loved the smell and bluey color.

:iagree: I remember them as a student!

 

I used the mimeograph machine as a schoolteacher in the 80's. I loved how easy it was to draw on the master and fit the blue (ink) template in the machine -- you could run any kind of paper -- copy, construction, newsprint, and thick cardstock. Couldn't do that with a xerox machine. ;)

Edited December 13, 2011 by tex-mex

[lmrich]

I used one in 1992 - 1994. I worked at an inner city school, and it worked better than our copier.

[SunD]

The ditto machine! My aunt was a teacher and I used to help her copy algebra and geometry worksheets. We used to hang out in the teacher's lounge waiting for the machine to be free. There was only one and of course everyone wanted to use it right after school let out so they could get home sooner.

 

That would have been 1989 - 1990. They probably used it longer than that because I don't remember using the Xerox until about 1995. Or maybe I just wasn't allowed to use the precious new Xerox for that long. :001_smile:

 

I also used to use the die cut machine with all the shapes and letters. Teachers would tell me what they wanted their bulletin boards to say and I'd make the stuff for it and pass it out in their memo boxes. Sad to say, I did it because I was their proofreader. Some of them were horrible spellers! :tongue_smilie: (And this was in maybe second or third grade!)

 

I also remember when paper came out of the printer all attached together! My aunt was one of the first with a computer at school and we used to make banners for all the teachers, too!

Edited December 13, 2011 by SunD
another thought

[AngieC]

Yep! I remember how exciting it was to get to take a master copy of the school office to have it copied on the ditto machine and how damp they were as they came off it.

[Starr]

Breath deeply!

[kalanamak]

Which one had the big round drum that you turned with a crank handle?

 

Ditto. You typed on a double sheet, and peeled off the top one and lay the "negative" on a drum.

[lynn]

I remember those. I remember getting papers that were still damp.

[*********]

Someone help me out; I'm remembering in my early grade school days, thinking that the papers smelled kinda like saltine crackers.

 

Anyone know what kind of machine made papers with that smell? Or maybe I'm the only one that thought they smelled like that, LOL. I was born in 77.

[jennsmile]

I have you all beat. My mom had a cookie sheet at home with jello and I don't know what else for making ditto copies. It was greenish so maybe antifreeze or something nasty.

[funschooler5]

I do! All of my kindergarten papers and a lot of 1st and 2nd grade had that lavender ink on them :)

[Mrs_JWM]

Just an FYI - if you have any of those ditto transfer sheets/carbon paper stuff lying around, don't attempt some weird DIY iron-on transfer project. In 1990 or so, when iron-on transfers were apparently difficult for the average crafty girl to find, I used leftover carbon paper my mother had given me - she was a teacher - to make t-shirts. That ink melts when you put an iron on it. Said ink then flows all over your mother's ironing board, which you promptly hide by setting it up in your room as a makeshift table for, oh, the next five years until you graduate from high school and leave for college... My mother was a teacher, remember? She wore A LOT of polyester and NEVER ironed! :lol:

[TrixieB]

Some friends and I were just talking about dittos today -- what a funny coincidence to come home and read this thread.

 

I remember dittoed Miquon-type worksheets in first or second grade.

[JFSinIL]

!960's grade school - yup, those purple, blurry mimeographs!

[TexasRachel]

I have you all beat. My mom had a cookie sheet at home with jello and I don't know what else for making ditto copies. It was greenish so maybe antifreeze or something nasty.

 

Maybe it's a LDS thing because I remember my mom doing the same thing. I'm pretty sure it was for primary too.

[Myeightkiddies]

I remember quite well. We'd get damp papers. The moment it hit our desks we'd lift it up to our noses and sniff. It probably wasn't the most healthy thing to do. However, back then we had asbestos hanging from the ceiling, lead paint chipping off the walls, and we used lead pencils.

[LizzyBee]

I remember them!

[Ellie]

The purple ink was a spirit duplicator. A mimeograph was actually a different machine.

 

I worked for Merril Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith as a clerk. My job was to watch a machine all day long that had stuff from the main office in NY. It all came out on two pieces of paper, one of them being a spirit master. I had to make copies all.day.long to distribute to the account executives, and my hands and arms were purple. That stuff doesn't wash off easily, either. :glare: I finally got rubber gloves and cuffs that covered my forearms up to my elbows.

 

I used to love the smell before I worked there, lol.

[FairyMom]

Mmm... mimeograph. I loved that smell!! Especially when it was warm. :D

[AndyJoy]

I hated them in kindergarten! I wanted my pictures to have dark black lines around them like my coloring books at home. Thus, I painstakingly outlined every single picture I was asked to color with black crayon. If I had time, I even traced over every letter in the little easy reading booklets we made. Can you guess which crayon I always wore out first?:D

[lllll]

..

[Maus]

I'd forgotten about the purple papers!

 

Do you remember filmstrips and the cassette tapes that beeped when it was time to move to the next frame?

[Twilight Woods]

the smell! the entire class would take the first few minutes after being handed the sheets and sniff! :tongue_smilie:

[Beach Mom]

Do you remember filmstrips and the cassette tapes that beeped when it was time to move to the next frame?

 

LOL! I was trying to explain film strips to my kids last night. They just didn't get it.

 

I loved making dittos. If you were fast with your math facts you "won" the right to be the ditto maker for the day. It was a huge motivator for me, I loved turning the handle and carefully counting the dittos.

[ereks mom]

:iagree: I remember them as a student!

 

I used the mimeograph machine as a schoolteacher in the 80's. I loved how easy it was to draw on the master and fit the blue (ink) template in the machine -- you could run any kind of paper -- copy, construction, newsprint, and thick cardstock. Couldn't do that with a xerox machine. ;)

 

Yep! I used to make crossword puzzles for my students. And I handwrote all their tests and worksheets too. I didn't own a typewriter, and nobody had computers back then (early 80s).

[Laura Corin]

I remember printing them off when I worked in a French Lycee in '83/'84. They had a modern photocopier too, but it was too expensive to use for most things. Standing turning the handle whilst thinking of the lesson ahead is a powerful memory.

 

Laura

[LaxMom]

The purple ink was a spirit duplicator. A mimeograph was actually a different machine.

 

I worked for Merril Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith as a clerk. My job was to watch a machine all day long that had stuff from the main office in NY. It all came out on two pieces of paper, one of them being a spirit master. I had to make copies all.day.long to distribute to the account executives, and my hands and arms were purple. That stuff doesn't wash off easily, either. :glare: I finally got rubber gloves and cuffs that covered my forearms up to my elbows.

 

I used to love the smell before I worked there, lol.

Ooh, Ellie! Did you have a telecopier, too? My step-dad's office was right next to my bedroom and that thing was like an alarm clock.

 

Ring... Ring... Zhuuuup, chucka chucka chucka chucka... Good times.

[Rhonda in TX]

I do! In high school, my mom was one of the people in charge of making those copies! She would type the teacher's tests/worksheets and make the copies on that machine. I also remember some teachers getting their copies straight off the machine. The pages would be sort of damp and have that strong smell.

[jennsmile]

Maybe it's a LDS thing because I remember my mom doing the same thing. I'm pretty sure it was for primary too.

 

 

LOL! Yes she used it for primary and other things. When we moved in '87 she gave it away I think. I used to think it was so cool.

[Pippen]

Some friends and I were just talking about dittos today -- what a funny coincidence to come home and read this thread.

 

I remember dittoed Miquon-type worksheets in first or second grade.

 

My teacher friends and I referred to it as "doing dittos."

 

I started teaching right as copy machines were coming on the scene. They were very expensive and we were limited to 25 copies per day that we could make in our building. We could have more copies printed at the district copy center if we had it ready a week in advance.

[Rebecca VA]

Oh, I loved the smell of them! It reminded me of the canned blueberries in Betty Crocker Blueberry Muffin Mix.

[Pippen]

Yep! I used to make crossword puzzles for my students. And I handwrote all their tests and worksheets too. I didn't own a typewriter, and nobody had computers back then (early 80s).

 

I had an old electric typewriter, plus there was one in our office when I started in 1984. Outside of a TRS-80, the first computer for teacher/classroom use in the school was a Mac bought with money raised through science club.

 

Recently I returned to a short term teaching stint. It took me almost two hours to do a worksheet that would have taken me 20 minutes by hand in the old days. It looked pretty ;) but I can't say the learning was any different than it was off the handwritten/ditto version.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

We still used them to run off our copies when I was a graduate assistant! I had to give my students purple tests! This was in the early 90's but our department was too cheap to use a photocopier!

[Chris in VA]

I hated them in kindergarten! I wanted my pictures to have dark black lines around them like my coloring books at home. Thus, I painstakingly outlined every single picture I was asked to color with black crayon. If I had time, I even traced over every letter in the little easy reading booklets we made. Can you guess which crayon I always wore out first?:D

 

I'm guessing you didn't go to a Waldorf school...:D

[jennsmile]

We still used them to run off our copies when I was a graduate assistant! I had to give my students purple tests! This was in the early 90's but our department was too cheap to use a photocopier!

 

In the early 93-94 my middle school was so cheap that our teachers could only have class sets of worksheets in purple ink...So I would have to handwrite out the whole worksheet to mark the grammar errors.

[jennsmile]

Look what I found , instructions for the gelatin printing thing I remember. It is called a hectograph.

[readinmom]

A teacher that I work with still uses it in his classroom. Budget cuts killed our copy numbers. Right now, he's the smart one.

 

I remember when I was a TA in high school and running the copies of tests. The smell, the purple ink, the stained fingers:001_smile:

[Parrothead]

I remember not knowing what color out handouts would be, and being disappointed when more and more of them came to us in black ink. I really liked the blue/purple. By 1980 everything was black.

[Lady Florida.]

I used it when I was a teacher in the 80's and early 90's, until we switched to a copy machine. It was in the back area of the teacher's lounge and we called it Purple Poison.

[DawnM]

When I started teaching in 1988 we still had ditto machines. They said they were cheaper than using the copy machine.

 

I used them up until around 2002 (not consistently though) when they mysteriously disappeared from the work room. They still worked, but I think there were only a handful of us who used them and the ink had run out and they just decided not to replace them.

 

Dawn

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

I used it when I was a teacher in the 80's and early 90's, until we switched to a copy machine. It was in the back area of the teacher's lounge and we called it Purple Poison.

 

(It was earlier than the 80s for me but...) So that is why the teachers always sent students to the office to collect the papers!? Who could forget those purple blue smudges on your fingers and clothes from a fresh copy.