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.
Maybe he was born during the Depression or soon after
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.
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.
Punch card stock makes amazing paper airplanes, both individually and laminated into larger stock.