• CountVon@sh.itjust.works
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    5 months ago

    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.

    • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      My dad converted old assembly programs into Cobol for spending money in uni - his textbooks were full of cast offs.

    • grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org
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      5 months ago

      Makes sense. I’m a librarian and we still use cards from the old card catalog for notes.

    • mercano@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      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.