Thread: Nostalgia

Originally Posted by papabrett

What I liked about the old library system was seeing if anyone you knew had checked out the book before you

Don't forget this too, the original google:

Originally Posted by krystian

Don't forget this too, the original google:

I LOVED digging through the card catalogue. You could find EVERYTHING you needed and not find a few things if you typed in the correct magical word.

Originally Posted by papabrett

Microfilm and the wonderful microfilm readers

Sometimes I just liked to run the film forward and backward to hear the really cool sound it made.

Speaking of microfilm, and you might need to be my age to remember this, who remembers those projectors that had a roll of film, but not movie film, more like microfilm type film, and they set it and it helped your reading comprehension. It would show the sentence and this shadow like thing went across the screen at a set speed and you had to read it as fast as the thing went across the screen then it went to the next 'slide'. Hard to describe it.

Originally Posted by fuego

Speaking of microfilm, and you might need to be my age to remember this, who remembers those projectors that had a roll of film, but not movie film, more like microfilm type film, and they set it and it helped your reading comprehension. It would show the sentence and this shadow like thing went across the screen at a set speed and you had to read it as fast as the thing went across the screen then it went to the next 'slide'. Hard to describe it.

I did some searching and found others that recall it. No pictures though. But this describes it better:

"i was taught speed (controlled reading) for 4 to 5 years in elementary school. (i think we started in 4th grade, but i don't remember exactly, i was always in the top reading group, (and way ahead of the class in reading skills) the class (huge, baby boomer generation, parocial school classes!) was broken up into groups (3? 4?) and 3 days a week we had 20 minutes of controlled reading.(about 10 to 15 kids to a group) we sat in a darkened class room. there was a projector, that had a letter box slot that was further masked, /......./, to make a window shaped like the this.

the window was wide enough for 2 short words (and, we, to, for, etc) or 1 long word (constitution, or similar) the window moved across the letter box, showing us one or two words at at time. (so the speed was controlled) after practice (first year)the speed was increased, (and increased, and increased) until by 8th grade my group was reading over 900 words per minute, with greater than 90% comprehension."

Originally Posted by fuego

Speaking of microfilm, and you might need to be my age to remember this, who remembers those projectors that had a roll of film, but not movie film, more like microfilm type film, and they set it and it helped your reading comprehension. It would show the sentence and this shadow like thing went across the screen at a set speed and you had to read it as fast as the thing went across the screen then it went to the next 'slide'. Hard to describe it.

Never had one of those machines in my school, sounds like something pre Evelyn Wood.

Found this tho, scroll down, is that a pic of it?

http://www.film-tech.com/ubb/f8/t005852.html

Speaking of things from grade school, here's an interesting article with pictures:

10 Things Disappearing from Elementary Schools

-Modern technology has changed the American classroom in many ways, as have parental attitudes. Here are some elementary school essentials that are either long gone or starting to disappear from the classroom...

http://mentalfloss.com/article/53144...entary-schools

Originally Posted by krystian

Speaking of things from grade school, here's an interesting article with pictures:

10 Things Disappearing from Elementary Schools

-Modern technology has changed the American classroom in many ways, as have parental attitudes. Here are some elementary school essentials that are either long gone or starting to disappear from the classroom...

http://mentalfloss.com/article/53144...entary-schools

Those were a fun trip down memory lane!

I always loved the way tests smelled hot off the mimeograph machine.