Stationery 1965

cooeedownunder

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I found an article that said that there had been a stationery company that used a slogan "Send many happy returns" or something similar, meant to encourage the gift giving of stationery. I’m wondering if the stationery used in this period would have been like a pad, where you take a page off at a time, or individual papers? possible colours, size, and if they were embossed? Ect

--and what would have been the most used pens? And also about notepads – were they like they are today - various sizes and ring binded?
 

Shakesbear

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Foolscap Folio - see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foolscap_folio

and lots of techie sort of stuff here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_size

Pads for letter writing were much the same then as now, iirc. Colours were white, blue and cream. There were various qualities from cheap in Woolworths to stuff like Three Candlesticks http://www.papernation.co.uk/a5-three-candlesticks-writing-paper.html and Basildon Bond. I think they were both around in the 60's. Some of the more expensive paper was sold in packs and some would have had water marks.
 

mccardey

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When I was a child in the 60s, we were still writing with dip pens and Quink ink - I have a vague memory of the first biros coming in around 1967 or 68 but we weren't allowed to use them for schoolwork ever. The nuns hated them.

(The prettier ink was Swan ink, but most of the kids just used Quink. It might have been cheaper.)
 

waylander

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My parents bought their own stationery with our address printed on it. It came with matching envelopes as individual sheets in boxes of 144
 

firedrake

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Basildon Bond and, for Air Mail letters, something called 'onion skin', which was very light and almost like tracing paper. I remember it being a pain in the arse to write on.
 

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In the states we had stationery stores that had racks upon racks of stationery displayed. You could find boxed sets of paper and envelopes with all sorts of drawn, photographic, embossed, etc. small designs in the upper left hand corner of the front writing sheets to give your letters some individuality. The sets contained 12 envelopes, front sheets, and 12 plain back sheets. It wasn't unusual for a person to have multiple boxes of stationery so you could pick and choose the design most appropriate to the occasion or person writing to. Stationery paper was white or sometimes pastel colors with matching envelopes.

There were also cheaper sets in plastic envelopes and then the very cheapest pads of writing paper with envelopes sold separately.

Ball point pens were the standard here - almost no one used fountain pens anymore except some hold outs like my brother. You could buy cartridge refills for many of the ball point pens on the market. Papermate was a big pen name in the states.

Once in a rare while someone would type a personal letter but that was unusual. It wasn't considered proper to type personal letters (just as it wasn't considered proper to write business letters longhand).

One of the nice advantages of the boxed stationery sets was that the box also served as a mini desk - so you could take your stationery box and pen and sit outside under a tree to write letters.

Notebooks - we used spiral bound notebooks that also had holes for three ring binders. We were just getting past the stage of using notebooks (not sure that's exactly what they were called) that would hold several notebooks or pads of paper and pens and closed with a zipper binding. It was standard practice to have one spiral notebook for each class you were taking and use the same notebook all year - easy to go back through and look at notes before tests.

I didn't see yellow or white lined tear off tablets much at all until I went out in the work force in 1967. Puma
 
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Deb Kinnard

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Cartridge fountain pens were "in style" for a while when I was in primary school (early 60s). Otherwise we used "crystal BIC" pens that cost $0.10 apiece, and ran dry almost weekly. When you graduated in school from a #2 (soft) pencil to a pen, you really felt as though you were growing up!

I remember you could buy lined or unlined stationery in most five-and-ten cent stores, and inexpensive boxed stationery there as well. For the up-market, there was stationery that they would custom print for you, as well as the onion skins mentioned above. I also recall a pre-cut air-mail letter form that you could then fold into its own envelope, lick, and stamp.

The heavier the paper, the classier it was felt to be. I remember deckled paper, and stationery that had a torn-looking edge, somewhat similar to the edges of book pages if the book is well bound and quite old. 'Course, those were for the grown-ups, not for us kids.
 

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And...

as Waylander mentioned if you were 'superior' you had your loose, watermarked, thick bond paper printed or engraved with your address by the local printing company. Doing this would be a regular part of the local publisher/printer's business.

Fountain pens were still regarded as better, biros were blobby and regarded as terribly bad for handwriting. When starting senior school students were often given a matching propelling pencil and fountain pen set.

Notebooks and pads around, cooee, but they tended to have plainer covers than today's.
 

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My grandparents had junk drawers and then they had junk drawers. In the less junky former, were S&H Green Stamps, coupons, and various pads and such. Some dated to well before 1964 and were both spiral wound and the tear-off type. They also had a couple of bank freebie checking account minders that were spiral wound and printed on the same sort of paper as checks. In their box of old papers and such, there were more pads they'd absently held on to over the years, not any different than most of today's, except, they didn't have nice little perforations. Some went back to the mid to late 1950s. And then of course was the so-called onion paper used for airmail to overseas friends.
 

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In the WWII period, the spiral notebooks all seemed to have the same drab brown cover, no variety. By the 60's, there were different colored covers on the spiral notebooks.

Another thing, in the WWII period, paper was not wasted. I have things from my grandparents where there are notes about many different things written on one sheet of paper or even previously used envelopes. Conservation of paper was still important in the early 60's. Kids weren't allowed to take a piece of paper and draw two lines and decide they wanted a clean piece. Your time period of 1965 is right on the break point between going from the austerity of the WWII period and the 50's to the abundance period of the later periods.

A nice gift for kids graduating high school (or college) in your period was a set of a Cross pen and pencil (mechanical). Shaffer (sp? Shaeffer)pens (frequently fountain pens) were also given as gifts.

I'm not sure when the "fold it up" thin aerograms for overseas mail came in, but it seems to me it may have been a little after 1965. I know I used them, but I can't remember who I was writing to to help with when.

And don't forget how much stamps cost back then - I'm pretty sure we were still at four cents for regular US Mail. Puma
 

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If they were advertising the stationery as something to be used for letters, it would almost certainly have been boxed stationery, not pads or spiral notebooks. Notebooks were for school notes, and pads were for things that would be thrown away.
 

MaryMumsy

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If they were advertising the stationery as something to be used for letters, it would almost certainly have been boxed stationery, not pads or spiral notebooks. Notebooks were for school notes, and pads were for things that would be thrown away.

And many of the boxes were so nice you kept them after the stationery was gone. They made good keepsake boxes. I still have two from the mid sixties.

MM
 

mccardey

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If they were advertising the stationery as something to be used for letters, it would almost certainly have been boxed stationery, not pads or spiral notebooks. Notebooks were for school notes, and pads were for things that would be thrown away.

Only in Australia, we called them exercise books, not note books. And writing paper, not stationery (because I remember when I first read the word "stationery" in - maybe - "Meet The Austins" I had to go and look it up...)
 

cooeedownunder

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Only in Australia, we called them exercise books, not note books. And writing paper, not stationery (because I remember when I first read the word "stationery" in - maybe - "Meet The Austins" I had to go and look it up...)

Oh, you posted while I was writing my comment. This helps because I called it stationery in my WIP, but it should be writing paper?
 

Alessandra Kelley

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My dad had massive quantities of onionskin paper. I loved it because you could see right through it. It had a ripply surface, but was fabulous for tracing. I used to type pictures on it, using different characters for different densities, and you could type on the back of the paper for subtle shading.
 

mccardey

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Oh, you posted while I was writing my comment. This helps because I called it stationery in my WIP, but it should be writing paper?

Or notepaper (my grandmother would have corrected notepaper though, and said you were sounding American...)

My opinions and memories are always strong, but they could also be, you know - wrong... I'm pretty confident if you happen to be writing about mid-1960s Mosman, Sydney, Australia. But I probably shouldn't extrapolate more widely than that.

(See that blush at the top of my post? It's meant to be here ( ) but I can't move it. Stupid blush.)
 
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Vito

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And also about notepads – were they like they are today - various sizes and ring binded?

I remember seeing spiral (wirebound) notepads when I was a very small child in the mid-1960s. I'm pretty sure that they were available in various sizes, from small memo pads to larger 8" x 11" notebooks.

If you're interested in the types of school supplies that students used in the U.S. during the 1960s, don't forget the very popular Pee Chee folder:

090904_fg4.jpg
 

Jamesaritchie

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Stationery was pretty much the same then as it is now. A few brands were different, but nearly all the famous brands are still around. And most cities, even small ones, still have stationery stores.

Stationery came in free sheets, and in notebooks. It cam with and without perforations. It came in all grades of paper, and in all colors. It came lined and unlined, with and without pithy little sayings, embossed or not, etc. It still does.

In school, we used same type of folders I still buy for kids today.

I was writing long before sixties, and no one I ever knew used a dip pen.
 

mccardey

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Stationery was pretty much the same then as it is now. A few brands were different, but nearly all the famous brands are still around. And most cities, even small ones, still have stationery stores.

Stationery came in free sheets, and in notebooks. It cam with and without perforations. It came in all grades of paper, and in all colors. It came lined and unlined, with and without pithy little sayings, embossed or not, etc. It still does.

In school, we used same type of folders I still buy for kids today.

I was writing long before sixties, and no one I ever knew used a dip pen.

I'm assuming, though, that Coo-ee is asking about Australia. Stationery didn't come in free sheets here, we used exercise books and not note books and everyone I knew used a dip pen - the nuns didn't allow anything else after third class.
 

BardSkye

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I'm assuming a dip pen is a fountain pen. I used fountain pens in school for at least the first half of the '60's (in Montreal, Canada). They were as much a requirement at our school as nylons, white blouse and grey skirt. (Hemmed an inch below the knee. Show your knees and you got sent home.)