One of my grandfathers worked for a telephone company before he passed. That man was an absolute pack rat, he wouldn’t throw anything away. So naturally he had boxes and boxes of punch cards in this basement. I guess they were being thrown out when his employer upgraded to machines that didn’t need punch cards, so he snagged those to use as note paper. I will say, they were great for taking notes. Nice sturdy card stock, and the perfect dimensions for making a shopping list or the like.
We used unused punchcards to make flashcards in elementary school in the late 80’s / early 90’s. I guess the county bought a bunch and had to find another use.
And now I realize the primary definition of flashcard has changed since then, from study aid to digital storage.
One of my grandfathers worked for a telephone company before he passed. That man was an absolute pack rat, he wouldn’t throw anything away. So naturally he had boxes and boxes of punch cards in this basement. I guess they were being thrown out when his employer upgraded to machines that didn’t need punch cards, so he snagged those to use as note paper. I will say, they were great for taking notes. Nice sturdy card stock, and the perfect dimensions for making a shopping list or the like.
Punch card stock makes amazing paper airplanes, both individually and laminated into larger stock.
Maybe he was born during the Depression or soon after
We used unused punchcards to make flashcards in elementary school in the late 80’s / early 90’s. I guess the county bought a bunch and had to find another use.
And now I realize the primary definition of flashcard has changed since then, from study aid to digital storage.
My dad converted old assembly programs into Cobol for spending money in uni - his textbooks were full of cast offs.
Makes sense. I’m a librarian and we still use cards from the old card catalog for notes.