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Yes that's right Carol - the copy paper was called bank paper - I'd forgotten that!

Anthea - After those round flat rubbers, they brought out pencil rubbers which were a lot easier to use, but still tore the paper if you weren't careful.

Maggs, the Tippex was awful when it ended up in a thick lump on your paper. Looked even worse than a rubbed out mistake! Did we use to thin it with nail varnish remover?

I remember going for an interview for a job once and I was asked if I ever made mistakes! I replied 'Yes' but you couldn't see them when I corrected them. I was told that mistakes weren't allowed in that office, so I told the interviewer that everyone makes mistakes at some time, and if that was their policy then it wasn't the job for me. I got up and walked out of the interview, and that is the only time I have ever done that.
 
Do you remember if you wanted to underline - you typed the words and then went back to the beginning of it and the held the shift key down at the same time as the underlining key . It was a revolution when the electric round golf ball (IBM I think) came to the office.
 
I do Carol, also remember having to use the low case 'l' for 1 as there wasn't a number one on the keyboard.
 
Carol and Judy, I expect you both, like me, had to tackle typing tables - measuring out spaces between the columns, setting the tabs, etc. I graduated to an electric typewriter which had black ribbon spools on each side of the machine. I think it was an IBM a forerunner to my IBM Golfball electric typewriter with interchangeable heads.
 
I had to do that too, Anthea. Having passed RSA 1 and 2 as a mature student of 35, I also took on RSA 3 which was a nightmare - typing out railway time tables so your paper had to be put into the machine on the slant. I was really glad when my back trouble made me give it up - to me better than failing an exam that I thought I might never pass.

Thank goodness for computers I say!
 
Yes Anthea, having to tab up and type tables were always something I dreaded. Electric typewriters were a step forward, then later I used an electric typewriter with a memory which was useful - don't remember the make. But looking back at those days now I can't believe how we coped. Having the abilities that the computer gives us now was something we could only dream of.
 
I have been enjoying your threads on secretarial work and typewriters and agree with you what a difference to nowadays with computers - our work would have been done much quicker. I used to work for an Architect typing out pages and pages of specifications with about four copies with carbon paper and it was so difficult if one made a mistake. That was between 1957 and 1961. I now just enjoy my laptop for fun and genealogy. Incidentally, I also lived in Harborne and am now in Devon.
Cheers - KINS
 
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Not a product in the true sense of the word but the Charleston has faded away.
 
My uncle taught me the charlston Sitcher circa 1965, we did the march of the mods, the hokey cokey, and the old time dances at 21sts and engagements and weddings in to the early 80's. My Nan won prizes she said for the Charlston the Turkey Trot and the Cakewalk. SHe had a dance card and also did the cuckoo waltz and hands knees ands bumpsadaisy,.
 
Judy, I had forgotten about the brushes used for cleaning our manual typewriters. Mine were in a pouch in my desk. I still have a round orange coloured typewriter rubber from days of yore.....and accuracy was most important working with several carbon papers between the sheets of paper - didn't want to waste time rubbing out errors, or risk tearing the paper.
My mum had a portable Olympia, it had a grey narrow brush and a rubber which was white thin and flat, it might have been round once a bit smaller than a scone in cirumferance with a metal piece in the middle the size of a penny. She had a rubber which was ruff on one half and soft oin the other, the rough I think was for carbon. Mum used pink correction fluid and nail varnish if she ran out. I remember her blowing it. I remember the music on the radio with a typewriter in it and the ping! She used to talk about dictaphones too.
 
]Bovril is still widely available and I had some only yesterday. I always had Oxo after a swim and not the silly new stuff in a tube, the good old cube variety that had to be crumbled into the hot water. I too have never sampled White Horse whisky and haven't seen Dimple Whisky for years but a google check shows it's still around.
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I can remember the empty bottles being made into table lamps.
 
Another memory revived Oisin, the bulb holder for the bottle used to have some sort of plastic flaps that had to bend sideways as the holder was pushed into the neck of the bottle. These plastic flaps were rather rigid and it took a bit of effort to get the bulb holder into the neck properly, or am I thinking of a more modern way of doing it? I do remember the bottle lamps because dad made a couple of them.
 
I remember some people made these bottle lamps and covered the bottle with seashells! Also remember using nicely shaped bottles (such as Mateus Rose) as candle holders for the thin tapered candles. Viv.
 
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I don't know if the Weekly Post is still available today but if it is it will be more expensive than 3d
 
Wow! I remember Halls Tonic Wine Stitcher. I remember seeing some in the house when I was probably about 13, and helping myself to a couple of glasses. Felt a bit tipsy after that!!
 
I remember drinking Sanatogen tonic wine, I wonder if that's still around too? I believe Halls and Sanatogen were to increase the intake of iron.
 
Yes Judy, they did have quite a high alcohol content in them. Even as an adult I remember feeling a bit whoozy too.
 
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