From an age before time

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Ok_Picture9667@reddit

Or you see your friend's name and then you go talk with them about the book.

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clutzycook@reddit

Same thing with textbooks. It was amusing to look at the front cover and see how many of the previous owners I knew.

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anniemdi@reddit

My mom was so appalled to find out I was using her 25 year old 7th grade history text book that she went to the school and confronted people.

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My daughter (freshman in HS) has a government textbook with names back to 2000. They don’t teach from it exclusively (it’s kept at home) but definitely have homework assignments. I asked her if she wanted me to make a paper bag cover for it (she declined).

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western_wall@reddit

Now that I think about it, why *did* we make them? What exactly was a paper bag book cover going to protect the book *from*?

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stefanica@reddit

🤣 I kinda miss making book covers.

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clutzycook@reddit

OMG that's insane! I don't know if I ever encountered a textbook that went that far back. I think the oldest book I ever had was maybe 15 years old at the time, which is bad enough. What was the school's response to your mom's confrontation?

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anniemdi@reddit

We have a book depository full of new books but there aren't enough for all the kids in some cases and in other cases the teachers simply refuse to adapt and teach from the new materials.

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clutzycook@reddit

That might work for subjects that don't dramatically change over the course of 25 years, but subjects like social studies and science do change frequently. So what was the teacher doing? Ignoring all historical events that had occurred in the last 20-25 years?

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stefanica@reddit

I have a feeling most teachers have not had the choice of when (or which) new textbooks were purchased. Frankly, I'd rather my kids use 20 year old textbooks, with some modern supplements, vs what they do now. A mishmash of out-of-context, instructionless worksheets, and some YouTube videos. It's very difficult to try to help with homework when you have no text to refer to.

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clutzycook@reddit

Tell me about it. My kids are the same way. No freaking textbooks, which makes it really hard to grasp what they are trying to do. I tell them it's been 30 years since I did most of that stuff. I wasn't great at it then and I'm absolute garbage now.

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anniemdi@reddit

Yes. That is exactly what they were doing. Cherry picking the bits they felt like teaching and it would envolve lots of grainy VHS or photo copied newspaper articles.

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redditsuxl8ly@reddit

This reminds me of writing my name in the front of a textbook. And if you had older siblings in school you had a chance to get one they used to have. 'Member?

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Xjasondagx@reddit

I used to love seeing the names of the older kids I knew from my dad coaching JV basketball. In my head I was like "yes! So and so took this book out". The things that made you happy as a kid lol.

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WeAreNotAmused2112@reddit

Old school browser history. You know mom was goth when she checked out Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark for a whole semester straight.

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akittenhasnoname@reddit

My mom worked at an elementary school and when the school library was getting rid of books she kept The Hobbit. I checked that book out so many times. Think there was maybe one other name on that card aside from mine. I'm not sure what happened with that book but I wish I still had it.

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originalbrowncoat@reddit

I’m surprised you can’t see the tear-stains on that card

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jinsaku@reddit

I reread this one every 5 or 6 years. One of the best endings I've ever read.

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BitCurious8598@reddit

I had to read that book. I think I got Pizza Hut for it too 🤣

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GreenApples8710@reddit

Where the Red Fern Grows - that was the book that got me started as a life long reader.

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bluefunksta@reddit

Loved it too. Perhaps it also contributed to my reading habit🤔

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EmRuizChamberlain@reddit

Or your crush…remember getting the tingle when you’d see your crush’s name?

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taleofbenji@reddit

Oh look a list of kids who got fuckin wrecked.

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kkkan2020@reddit

1989 was a great year.

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The_Queef_of_England@reddit

The year of hypercolour tshirts irrc.

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ComplexityArtifice@reddit

I wonder if somewhere, someone has one of these library checkout cards with my name on it. Not knowing who I am or if I'm even still alive. But I am, and I'm here on Reddit right now talking specifically about it, also wondering who they are, and they have no idea!

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Plantayne@reddit

If anybody has any of the ones from the Choose Your Own Adventure series at my school, then it’s more than likely I’m on there…although I imagine they’d have changed out the cards once they were filled up, which it probably was by the time I’d moved on.

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ComplexityArtifice@reddit

Those were my jam, I loved them. When I was a kid my mom's friend and her 2 kids moved in with us for awhile, and one of them had a bunch of them that I got to read. I couldn't get enough.

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Plantayne@reddit

I must have read Deadwood City and the Horror of High Ridge at least 30 times each. Plus all the other ones…such a great series.

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thekickassduke@reddit

OMG fuck this book. Not that it's a bad book -- quite the opposite -- but seriously fuck this book.

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cityshepherd@reddit

Mrs Ottenberg let me read this during math class in 6th grade. She was also the English teacher, and was just thrilled that I was actually reading one of the books we had been assigned (I hated reading when I was younger because I couldn’t stand stuff like to kill a mockingbird and anything Charles dickens). If we would have covered anything that was even remotely interesting to me it may have been a different story… at least I’m good at math. Also yes this book hit me harder than anything in my life had at that point, and didn’t feel pain like that again until I had my own dog(s) that passed away.

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The_Queef_of_England@reddit

Charleds fricking Dickens. My teacher bigged up A Tale of Two Cities when I was 10. I begged my dad to get it, and he kept saying how it was probably too advanced and I wouldn't understand it, but I insisted I'd love it and I really wanted to read it. He got it for me. I didn't understand any of it.

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foxhagen@reddit

*Completely* traumatized me.

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WindTall5566@reddit

Reminds me of middle school. But yeah, I know what you mean.

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PuppyJakeKhakiCollar@reddit

I never read this one but my sister told me what happens and I'm glad I never read it. Animal deaths in books and movies sent me over the edge as a kid. Even as an adult, I still get wary when an animal shows up in, say, a crime series.

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AlongTheWay_85@reddit

I mean… if you insist.

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The_Queef_of_England@reddit

I remember there was something fascinating about those but I can't remember what it was. I think it was reading the name to see if I knew a previous reader, or it could have been looking at the dates to see how many years ago it was first taken out, or maybe something I've forgotten, but there was definitely something.

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dryocopuspileatus@reddit

I used to make these and tape them inside my books, and write fake names on them (“Victoria Blankenship”), and pretend to be a librarian.

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PoorMansSamBeckett@reddit

I remember I had a textbook in high school and the oldest name in the book was from ~10 years previous to the time I had it. The name in the book was my teacher for that class.

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Paper-street-garage@reddit

Remember, there would also be a section about the condition of the book each year people would always make it sound worse than it is haha

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SteakJones@reddit

I miss that too. It was a cool little physical bond. Yeah we know that people checked the book out before, but this was tangible proof. The stamp, the signature… just really cool and personal.

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OJimmy@reddit

To want to revisit the core memory, watch the last few episodes of Lessons in Chemistry. Library sleuths!

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Harlockarcadia@reddit

I loved being the first one to have read a book in a while, made me feel like I was among an elite few who knew what was what

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ElectricSnowBunny@reddit

My biggest thrill in 4th grade was checking out a book and seeing that Melissa K, my crush, was theast person to check it out. Mmmm

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AotKT@reddit

When I was a little kid I made those cards and envelopes for all my books. That's how I knew that Jamie from elementary school stole the copy of one of my favorite books before moving away. Years later we ended up in the same junior high and I confronted her about it. Still salty to this day, despite having replaced the book already on paper and Kindle.

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joeysprezza@reddit

Fuckin typical Jamie. Bitch. Can't even read.

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joeysprezza@reddit

It was always cool to see real old ones

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iamsunshine78@reddit

Aww look at all those kids whose hearts and spirits were absolutely shattered by this book.

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Neon_1984@reddit

Shout out to slow readin’ Billy Clark

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DietOwn2695@reddit

Thats funny.

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StubbornKindOfFellow@reddit

Oh man, I haven't seen one of those date stamps in.. probably over 20 years.

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Phreequencee@reddit

Good old meta-data!

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violet039@reddit

I used to look at the sign out thing in my textbooks in high school. I started in ‘89 and graduated in ‘93. I would see signatures as far back as the 60s. It was really cool.

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AlongTheWay_85@reddit

When I was in grade school, for an hour a day, I was a library aide… not sure why, maybe I was too dumb to do whatever it was the other kids were doing. My job was to go through and stamp all the cards…. again, not sure why I was doing that either. Man, I might actually be dumb..

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DreadedChalupacabra@reddit

That book was fantastic.

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falkorsaveslives@reddit

I am still not over Old Dan and Little Ann.

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Gian_Luck_Pickerd@reddit

It was always cool to me getting a book, and the names went back to the early/mid-80's, even the late 70s. I remember getting one book that my cousin, who's 10 ten years older than me had checked out in like 1981

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spsanderson@reddit

That was cool for sure, but kind of sad knowing my name is long gone from those books

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spsanderson@reddit

That was cool for sure, but kind of sad knowing my name is long gone from those books

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