Contact was what we used - clear sticky plastic stuff that we covered text books in to protect them (from tearing mostly) and sometimes out notebook covers also.
Yeah, clear contact over text books (you can use a ruler to help smooth it down as you go) and you can get patterned/character contact for covering the books you write in, like Bath says, it keeps them durable and they're less likely to tear, it waterproofs them a bit for when their water bottle leaks in their school bag, and it's easy to see which is theirs.
I remember having silver hologram contact when I was young, it was soooo cool!
It's also sometimes called Duraseal (a different brand to Contact). Clear plastic adhesive sheet to protect the covers of textbooks and exercise books.
Hey you mums out there with schoolkids...
When I was a kid you used to be able to get all kinds of different patterns (stripes, dots, Smurfs, flowers) but I only ever seem to see clear Contact now...could I hijack this thread and ask if kids still cover their exercise books with patterned Contact or is that hopelessly outdated now? (And using the Name Labels from New Idea magazine!!!!!)
We used to have different color contact for each subject. Gee, I'd forgotten about that. I guess I'll be needing to start doing it soon too - I hope I can do it without too many bubbles!!
I used to like this pretty contact design with Australian animals in cartoon form in Beatrix Potter type colours... and yes, haven't seen that around in years.
I love covering books in contact... as long as it's the good stuff... not the flimsy stuff.
I did have a slight giggle CQueen, but I laughed harder at Nelle saying she laughed so blame her :P
Before contact was probably invented (or before we could afford it) my mum used to cover books with clear plastic and stuck it down with sticky tape on the inside covers. I think my brothers used to cop brown paper
When I went to high school we didn't have books. We just got note pads given to us, and had to put them into folders like display books or ring binders with those plastic sleeves in it.
LOL I had a few books covered with brown paper and plastic...just like Mum did when she was a kid! And so did other kids at primary school too. We would cut pictures off birthday cards and stick them on there to pretty them up.
I looooved book covering day and when I got old enough I would Contact my own books, Mum taught me how. I loved getting all my new stationery ready for school...even DH says how much he loved getting new stationery LOL.
We also sometimes used pretty gift wrapping paper and then clear Contact over the top.
I am so looking forward to doing my kids' books but I don't want to send them to school with really uncool books!!!!
LOL Curly I used to love getting the stationary as well. I still do. I love stationary and can't wait till the kids start having to get their own supplies and not having them school supplied which means they have to stay at school.
Yep, back in 1975 when I started school it was brown paper and if I was lucky I could stick on a picture cut off a greeting card.
By about 1979 I was getting wrapping paper with clear plastic, sticky tape at the corners like Astrolady described.
It wasn't until the 1980's that contact came into use. Back then it was more often used to cover furniture!!! So it was thick and came in colours and patterns that reflected the decor of the time. People might have used it to line the insides of cupboards. I don't think it came in clear until about the mid 80's (well not common in the rural towns where I lived).
By 1986 I was covering my own books... and yep, recall the clear stuff being available. It was more common to want the pattern stuff though.
As above.. clear or coloured contact.. I used to when I was going to school but I don't bother now. I don't see the point.. I do for the text books but not the kids regular books
You can still get the Contact to line drawers with, I've seen it in BigW, but not in the same section as the book covering Contact. It still has horrible patterns!
Bathsheba's timeline is pretty accurate. I first had Contact covered books in 1983, and clear Contact was around then...but that was also the first year we were given a book list to buy ourselves so don't know if it was any earlier. I remember Mum making a big fuss of the Smurf Contact she bought for my exercise books so maybe it was really new!
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Please don't laugh at me...
am I supposed to? What does it even mean?
i'm assuming some kind of wrapping paper
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