Who remembers "dittos" from school with the smelly ink??

[nytemare]

They were always warm and the ink was shiny and smelly. That was back in the day, but not THAT day!

[latebloomer]

1. Yes!!

And they came out of the "mimeograph" machine!

[nytemare]

5. Yeah, that is what they were called!

I couldn't remember!

[TrogL]

44. no they didn't

Mimeograph was a separate process involing typing on special paper that created a stencil, then using that to run copies. Black ink all over the place.

http://www.sil.org/lingualinks/literacy/referencematerials/glossaryofliteracyterms/WhatIsAMimeographMachine.htm

A ditto machine used alcohol as its transfer medium - hence the smell.

[ChoralScholar]

49. a spirit duplicator was the general name for those

types of units....

[ET Awful]

2. Mimeograph machines :)

Purple ink all over the place :)

[bleedingheart]

4. I remember using those!!!

[nytemare]

7. Yep, I remember them from the 80's in school

Memories!!

[ET Awful]

17. Yup, we had a handcranked one at my school. Some teachers

made you clean erasers when you got in trouble, others made you stand there for hours and crank that infernal machine :)

After we discovered the pleasant effects of smelling that ink for long periods of time, we used to get in trouble on purpose :).

[4_Legs_Good]

3. Oh my yes

Loved 'em!

david

[nytemare]

9. Yep!

That was almost as good as the smelly paste in Kindergarten!

[Beaverhausen]

6. I do

I was in a work/study program my senior year of high school and got to actually work that machine. I totally got high from it.

[nytemare]

14. LOL, you must have gotten a headache after a while!

Funny stuff!

[sui generis]

8. yup - I remember taking tests on those

some of them were so faded and crappy, even fresh off the roller, and you could sit there and practically get high on the fumes. If for some reason you needed to look at them again in a year, they'd be completely faded; just the teacher's marks left on them.

Mimeographs!

We had those in Germany all the way up to 1980.

[nytemare]

11. Well, Florida schools must have gotten them as hand me downs!

LOL. I remember them in Florida up to maybe 83 or so.

[Zuni]

15. we had those in Maryland in the late 80s

I can still remember the 'ditto' smell

[nytemare]

22. I lived in Maryland until I was 8

Silver Spring/Wheaton. I miss it, sometimes!

[Kellanved]

23. Well into the 90s

I got them as well, occasionally. Until 1998 IIRC.

[SillyGoose]

10. OH! I remember those!

Holy cow, what a blast back in time!

[nytemare]

18. I know!

Good memories!

:)

[Zuni]

12. I used to love those!

They were around in my day and that wasn't too long ago

[nytemare]

21. Yeah, just over 20 years ago..lol

Hey, we are only as old as we allow ourselves to feel!

:)

[MuseRider]

13. I used to love them!

Remember how cool and damp they were when the teacher would pass them out? I always liked the way they smelled.

[Mizmoon]

16. you could get high off that smell if you inhaled deeply

just saying :shrug:

[nytemare]

26. Yep, and they would stick together!

:D

[xmas74]

19. I used to sit and sniff them when they were still warm.

Man, I loved the smell! That and liquid White-Out.

[Zuni]

34. I LOVED warm dittos---the smell and the feel

I can smell them now, and it brings back good memories

[xmas74]

41. But what was better-warm dittos or liquid White-Out?

[johnnie]

20. I remember

Wasn't there a scene in Fast Times at Ridgmont High when they all picked up the paper and smelled it? It was some movie.

[nytemare]

27. Wow, I haven't seen that is so long, I don't remember

I haven't seen Breakfast Club in a while, either!

[ChoralScholar]

51. Watched it last night... Mr. Hand had passed out a test

and they all smelled it in unison. It was great.

Heres a picture to take you back, BTW



Just dial up the copies and let 'er rip.. :)

[proud2BlibKansan]

52. Yes that's my favorite scene in that movie

The kids each take a big sniff as the papers are passed out.

[Goblinmonger]

24. I'm old enough

to remember being a teacher when that was all we had to make copies with. Of course it was 1988 at a really cheap Catholic school.

[nytemare]

30. I don't think I ever saw the machines

I just remember the dittos!

[proud2BlibKansan]

53. I started teaching in 1980

and remember dittos well. The purple ink would stain your fingers and was almost impossible to wash out. The summer after my first year, all my ditto masters melted together in the hot closet and I had to throw them out. I was so mad.

[luvLLB]

25. Yeah, the purple stuff..

[nytemare]

28. Exactly!

I have a car about that color now...Lol!

Welcome to DU!

[NoPasaran]

29. Mmmmmmm!

[Ellen Forradalom]

31. meeeeee

I used to run off a 5th grade class newspaper on one, until my mother persuaded her office to Xerox the newsletter and write it off as an educational expense.

[mitchtv]

32. I used to run a mimeo at one of my early jobs

I am old enough to remember fountain pens (before cartridge pens) and ink wells that worked. We had to wear long sleeved white shirts, and i would go home with inkup to my elbows. Blotters never seemed to do it.

[Bouncy Ball]

33. Remember?

Remember! Remember....hmm. I did remember it just for a second but now it's gone.

Wait, what are we talking about?

[nytemare]

42. LOL

You must have smelled too many dittos if you can't remember smelling dittos!!!

:)

[HeeBGBz]

35. Ooh, the lovely shade of purple

The intoxicating smell...

[ronnykmarshall]

36. I loved using the "ditto machine"

The ink was purple. I kinda like the smell of it.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

37. Smelly?

No, fragrant, like bubble gum. :-)

[nytemare]

43. I just meant smelly in the sense that it had a smell

as opposed to now. Not that it was a bad smell!

:)

[gollygee]

38. I remember those

mainly from Jr. High. but we had one high school teacher who prefered the mimeograph machine to sharing the one single only xerox in the whole school of 2500 students.

[Debbi801]

39. Funny you should mention this...

We were trying to describe these to our kids earlier this week. They just couldn't grasp the whole concept, especially a class full of kids smelling them as they were handed out. :)

This generation has been deprived, all they know are copiers. LOL

Debbi

Edit for spelling error

[Mutley]

40. i used to like that smell

call me crazy

[flamingyouth]

45. I used to use one a mimeograph to print my junior high newspaper

They were a major pain in the ass to use, plus you had to type the original document on these weird blue carbon paper-like things...

[nytemare]

46. Weird!

I haven't seen one.

[Kat45]

47. Those were great!

I remember them in school, in the sixties and seventies. The teacher would pass them out, and we'd all immediately raise the paper up to our noses to smell it.

[nytemare]

48. Those were the days!

:)

[KitchenWitch]

50. yes

None of the printing on the "dittoed worksheets" was crisp, so they were difficult to read.

[ScreamingMeemie]

54. And sometimes they were still wet and your pencil wouldn't be able

to write on them. :) They have one at my daughter's school,but they don't use it anymore. I could never figure out the mechanics of it, but I remember grinding the handle.