Although I’ve noticed this item in the corner of a classroom I teach in this quarter, I never looked closely at it until today, when it was in a slightly different location.

I almost didn’t recognize what it was. That’s how long it’s been since I’ve seen one of these. Are you old enough to remember dot matrix printers? If so, you probably understand the significance of that big rectangular hole in the lower shelf.

Amazingly, look at who still sells that striped green continuous-feed paper!

Collector’s item: A bargain at $78.99!

Someone somewhere still uses this product.

Wow.

That’s like a coal truck that makes local delivery rounds, which I suppose might be a routine occurrence in some places but which I haven’t seen in Milwaukee since the early 1990s. And even then, only once. Watching coal tumble down the long chute from truck to basement of an older East Side home, I felt like I’d stepped through a time warp into the 1930s.

I wonder if anyone still uses this printer cart for anything other than a lectern stand, which appears to be its current job. At least it is serving a legitimate need in its repurposed life 🙂