Yesterday I walked into the PA Writing and Literature Project office and was greeted by three dinosaurs – three overhead projectors waiting to be picked up for recycling. And then I remembered…
Before there were smart boards and document imagers, there were overhead projectors and blackboards with white and yellow chalk.
Before there were online videos, there were filmstrips that melted when they got too close to the bulb and 35mm movies and videotapes.
Before there were emails and text messages, there were handwritten notes and phone calls from landlines.
Before there were CDs and music streaming, there turntables for 45s and vinyl albums and 8-tracks and cassette tapes.
Before the internet, there were phonebooks and encyclopedia sets and folded maps and catalogs.
The way we teach, the way we give and get information, the way we live is constantly changing, and hopefully we are better for it.
Imagine the Possibilities 
Rose, Let’s not forget the ever popular purple ditto with its distinctive smell and the ability to turn hands purple. 🙂
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How could I have forgotten that gem?! Thanks, Bob!
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Ah, yes, the high tech tools from my youth. So nostalgic.
I love the way you structured this piece – the repeating line and the see-saw structure of before there was this, there was that. Great Slice.
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I miss the encyclopedias the most! What an ode to time and change – I, too, hope for the better.
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My daughter just encountered the old credit card slips when the router went down at the restaurant where she worked this summer. She’d never seen them before–they didn’t even have the swipe machine, they had to rub the cards with a battery! Some of these things, like handwritten letters, are a real loss! Others, perhaps not so much! Thanks for sharing your engagingly structured slice and a walk down memory lane.
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I keep running across the pens we used to write on overheads. They make great markers. And I keep reminding myself that so much of what I’ve kept is no longer necessary. It will be interesting to see what the next 30 years in education bring. The purple ditto and hours spent typing handouts – the bane of my student teaching experience. Remember how we had to scrape the carbon and carefully place a new piece of carbon paper in its place when we made a mistake. I don’t miss those days!
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I remember all these. Those overhead projectors- when my daughter (recent college grad) was in elementary school, she loved the one in her classroom so much, she actually asked for one for Christmas!
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So crazy I had one in my clAssroom 2 years ago but it didn’t work ! 😦
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