Sep 9th 2011 08:01 am Or your old kit bag…
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You see kids today staggering down the street under preposterously large backpacks, as if they’re Sherpa guides schlepping camera equipment up Mt. Everest to record the triumph of the famous mountain climber. Backpacks have become so large, and so laden with the gear necessary to kiddom these days, that some children actually are experiencing spinal issues. Plus, in today’s unfortunate environment, backpacks, or “rucksacks” if you will, present a security puzzle for schools and parents. Having said all that, I think backpacks are a perfectly logical idea. When I was going to school, we simply slipped our books under our arms, where they constantly slid, shifted and dropped on the ground. One technological innovation was a simple strap, like a belt, that slipped around the books, but wormy little guys such as myself didn’t dare use one, because the least the big kids could do would be to hog-tie you with it.
Every time I mention it, I get a few more orders, so I’d be crazy to stop mentioning it. It isn’t too late to sorta pre-order late. Just send an email to: preorder@arloandjanis.com
Posted by jimmyjohnson / Vintage A&J
57 Responses to “Or your old kit bag…”
hc on 09 Sep 2011 at 8:22 am #
to Jim in MS – In GB, Leeks are a popular item in cooking – especially as in “cock-a-leekie” soup from Scotland. Hope this doesn’t go into moderation! English is a different language
Jean from Dahlonega Ga aka Trapper Jean on 09 Sep 2011 at 8:28 am #
Funny you should mention backpacks…a week or so ago while watching tv I saw an ad for one that has an alarm in it. If anyone tries to steal the backpack or kidnap the kid, the alarm goes off. It’s called the iSafe, and “is like having your own personal security guard”.
Back in the day I wouldn’t have minded having a backpack. I had to walk about a mile from our house to the bus stop, which wasn’t so bad when I was in elementary school, but by high school was torture. Every few feet I’d have to stop and rearrange books or pick up ones that had slid to the ground.
Hurd Finnegan on 09 Sep 2011 at 9:01 am #
Some of the smallest girls in our school carry packs that weigh more that what an Army Ranger carries. Then right behind them you will see a huge ball player carrying nothing. Go figure.
debbie on 09 Sep 2011 at 9:11 am #
thanks for allowing me to preorder; I had sent something like 3 emails and nothing was getting thru; I got scared…..
Hurd: I was one of those little girls in school; I would take home my books pretending to study; I read them at the beginning of the semester and then scan just before a test; I had everyone fooled. Now, I cannot remember a word.
Mark from Maine on 09 Sep 2011 at 9:17 am #
When I was in high school – early 70s – we didn’t have backpacks, but we did have bookbags, as heavy as what these guys carry now. I hear lots of colleges are going to e-textbooks, able to be read on a computer or tablet, thus solving the spinal issues . . .
As for “rucksack,” I was always annoyed with my mom when I was a teenager and she referred to “blue jeans” or “jeans” as “dungarees.” I thought it was a hopelessly outdated word. Of course, I think it’s cool now because of its etymology . . . http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dungaree
phil in Missoula, MT on 09 Sep 2011 at 9:25 am #
Backpacks are like purses…the bigger they are, the more stuff kids will carry in there. Spare clothing, snacks, old papers. I haven’t been around schools in a very long time but the other thing that strikes me is that perhaps the schools have taken lockers out for security reasons, forcing kids to carry everything they own all the time.
I still have some of my chemical engineering and mathematics books and mathematics from mumbledy-mumble years ago. I keep lugging them from one place to another, thinking I may read them again, despite the fact that I haven’t cracked them since the class final. Maybe this winter, when it is cold outside….ha. If I ever move again, they’re going out to recycle, he said bookishly.
sandcastler on 09 Sep 2011 at 9:48 am #
The backpack is my briefcase/inflight bag. All the electronics plus all of the assorted cables which have become a lifeline can travel close at hand. And as I age all the necessary medicines that keep me going are in there too.
billinbossier on 09 Sep 2011 at 9:53 am #
Going to school in the 50′s…yeah, I know it was over 50 years ago…a lot of us kids carried our books in our Dad’s old WWII back packs they brought home with them. For those whose Dad’s didn’t bring a pack home, we had a lot Army/Navy Surplus Stores where you could buy one for a couple of dollars. Of course, by the time we got to high school in the 60s, you wouldn’t be caught dead with anything that your parents gave you, except for a car. So, a lot of us wouldn’t carry books at all, just leave them in the locker.
sideburns on 09 Sep 2011 at 11:09 am #
I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday and missed the discussion, so I’m getting this in late. My favorite Graham Kerr story is about the time he was roasting a chicken and when it came out of the oven somebody on the crew had added an egg in the obvious location. He gave it a dirty look, pulled it out and tossed it into the audience.
Ursen on 09 Sep 2011 at 11:27 am #
I’d love to preorder, but I’m on a fixed income and the money won’t be in the kitty for another 3 weeks. An answer to the backpack problem I’ve seen some little ones using is a wheeled backpack. The only problem is it makes them look like they are leaving for a 2 week vaction.
Dan in SWMo on 09 Sep 2011 at 11:28 am #
I have no experience with the US at that period of time, but in the ’50s I was an elementary school student in South Africa and we used backpacks (plain khaki canvas with leather carrying straps and closures). I actually don’t remember much of the details myself, but my Dad had a picture of my brother and me after school one day.
Jerry in Fl on 09 Sep 2011 at 11:31 am #
The word ruck has several definitions. As a matter of fact it’s almost a slang word used for things like a widget or thingamybob. One of the definitions is a great quantity of stuff. One of the definitions would not be appropriate to discuss here.
beggar on 09 Sep 2011 at 11:58 am #
Surprised that none of your regulars picked up on “old kit bag” as in “Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag, and Smile, Smile, Smile” a World War I marching song, published in 1915 in London. Guess none of them were around then!
Dave in MA on 09 Sep 2011 at 12:27 pm #
Ursen, no money required for pre-order. Just an email.
debbie on 09 Sep 2011 at 12:30 pm #
sorry, beggar, I wasn’t around; but I remember watching an old movie (don’t remember the name) with a song ‘button up your overcoat’ and as soon as I get a chance, I want to learn to swing-dance….it’s looks so great!
when do you want your money, J.J.?
curmudgeonly ex-professor on 09 Sep 2011 at 1:50 pm #
Back in the mid-40s to mid-50s in New York City, WOR personality John Gambling used “Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag and Smile, Smile, Smile” as his theme song. When he signed off with it at 8 a.m., I knew I had to have begun dressing. Thanks for the memory.
In HS in the mid-50s, we had neither backpacks nor straps for our many books. We just stacked them and carried them along all day – no lockers, either. I recall having as many as 5 separate bound notebooks plus a looseleaf to carry, not to mention the various subject texts.
Phil in MT: I have all my past math texts, too, and I do browse them from time to time. Once in a while I’ll buy a new one if the topic interests me, even if I never studied that topic. I suppose it helps to keep the synapses “oiled”….
Blinky the Wonder Wombat on 09 Sep 2011 at 2:30 pm #
Went ot school in the 70′s and I don’t remember ever having to lug as many books around as my kids had to. Usually the math book came home every night for homework, but most other books stayed in school except for an occasional trip home for end of the chapter homework problems. on any given night, the books would fit easily under one arm. No backpacks, but some kids did spring for large rubber bands with hooks (think proto-bungee cords) to keep their books together.
One disadvantage of backpacks- a young Romeo can’t offer to carry his Juliet’s books home from school.
Bob in Orland Park on 09 Sep 2011 at 3:24 pm #
No backpacks in the 50′s in Chicago, just gym bags with smelly clothes that we stuffed books or anything else that had to be carried home.
Mary in Ohio on 09 Sep 2011 at 3:28 pm #
Hurd – because the girls still have to actually study and earn the passing grade…
JJ – you got some pre-order pub in CIDU and Comic Strip of the Day during the last week too!
I always lugged home papers to grade every night. And lugged them back in the morning, having done about as much with them as many of you describe with your nightly cargo of books.
Craig T on 09 Sep 2011 at 3:42 pm #
In the late ’70s I had a backpack in college. I learned the hard way that the two things not to scrimp on were the backpack and the umbrella. Cheap ones would fail at inopportune moments.
Backpacks hadn’t moved down into high school yet, so a nice backpack became my default graduation present for cousins and siblings.
I used my best college backpack for over fifteen years (although the load was a lot lighter after I was in school. It finally gave out during a layover at the Minneapolis airport. I had four hours to kill, so I took a bus to the mall to kill time and bought a replacement. That one I’ve been using for thirteen years.
hc on 09 Sep 2011 at 3:59 pm #
IT was leather satchels (straps over both shoulders) in 50′s UK – then on to boarding school so who needed a book carrier – they all stayed in study hall – and so did we!
Tom in Southern Ohio on 09 Sep 2011 at 4:01 pm #
Hi, all! It’s the weekend!
I thought I’d mention something that I’d just found out about, a project that’s in the works to create a documentary on comic strips. Half of the team working on it is Dave Kellett, a cartoonist who does the online strips “Sheldon” and “Drive”. (“Sheldon” can be found at http://www.sheldoncomics.com.) The film is to be called “Stripped.”
Jimmy, I was wondering if you were one of the cartoonists that were interviewed for the film?
Oh, and there’s info about it here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/smallfish/stripped-the-comics-documentary. It’s also a fundraising site, but don’t feel obligated to donate; that’s not why I posted this. It just seems like something many here would be interested in.
Cheers,
Tom
Cactus Mike on 09 Sep 2011 at 5:06 pm #
What I find amusing is that you used to see all the ‘Professionals’ carrying brief cases or satchels to the office. Now, almost everyone I work with prefers backpacks, because as Sandcastler pointed out, you need the pockets for all the gadgets, cables and other accoutrements.
And the over-sized satchels with wheels and telescoping handles have been replaced by . . . over-sized backpacks with wheels and telescoping handles!
Boise Ed on 09 Sep 2011 at 5:41 pm #
Ursen, the kids with wheeled backpacks also take up a lot more of the crowded hallway space between classes. And I’ve seen some people in airports with itty bitty wheeled backpacks that seem easily carryable by anyone.
Jim in SE Mississippi on 09 Sep 2011 at 6:24 pm #
The Tropical Rucksack, commonly called a “ruck,” was widely used by US troops in Viet Nam.
Jerry in Fl on 09 Sep 2011 at 6:36 pm #
I’m not surprised about nam because one of the definitions of a ruck is a —- floating in a —— bowl.
Jerry in Fl on 09 Sep 2011 at 6:39 pm #
There were more dashes to indicate the nimber of letters, but apparently that doesn’t translate to commentland very well.
Jim in SE Mississippi on 09 Sep 2011 at 6:52 pm #
This is worth spending a couple of minutes watching. It’s not CGI; it’s real.
http://www.tecca.com/news/2011/03/15/saturn-fly-by-video/
emeritus Minnesota biologist on 09 Sep 2011 at 7:27 pm #
Jim: Thanks for the animation. I check NASA’s Cassini-Huygens Saturn site, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm , every few days. It has new info, often accompanied by still photos and intelligent lay-level explanations, but sometimes with motion, like icewater geysers from whatever moon it is that does that. NASA’s Mars Rover site, http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html , is also worthwhile. Spirit got stuck last year, and is no longer reporting, but Opportunity is still going after 7.5 years, and they add new info when appropriate. Worth checking weekly.
cxp: John Gambling was neat. He had a three-piece [I think] combo that played appropriate live music. One of them was named “Fraz” [I've no idea how it was actually spelled]. They sometimes played the can-can from Offenbach’s “Orpheus in the Underworld”, at which point listeners were supposed to lie on their backs and do “bicycle” exercises. Gambling was followed at 8 am, I think, by Mark Hawley [sp?], who did a whole 15 minute news program, with only three short commercials–beginning, middle, and end–resulting in a full 12 minutes or so of news, all narrated by one guy, no “Now we take you to whomever …” who simply repeats what you just heard.
emeritus Minnesota biologist on 09 Sep 2011 at 7:33 pm #
I just posted something, with two websites in it, and it’s in moderation. Can’t find anything that might be considered naughty. The word Gambling is in it, but cxp’s comment about John Gambling passed. It mentions Rover [as in Mars Rovers], and Lisa Minelli referred to herself as one in “Mein Herr”. Maybe it will eventually pass.
mark in TTown on 09 Sep 2011 at 8:33 pm #
Jim in SE Mississippi: Thanks! What a great video! That is why we need a space program, to keep exploring.
On the rucksack/book bag topic: early 1960′s. At least for the first two or three years of elementary school I had a book bag that looked like a satchel. And it was made of some kind of composite material that had a weird smell I still remember but can’t describe.
CW in 617 on 09 Sep 2011 at 9:17 pm #
In high school, I had to wait until Senior year to get a locker of my own. After three years of my locker partner and I smelling each other’s dirty gym clothes on Fridays, I was disappointed to find my new locker was so far out of my ambit.
So, I started carrying all of my books in a canvas knapsack, and never even memorized the new locker combination. To give an approximate time frame, I also carried my slide rule in this pack.
The same pack got me through college, and partway through grad school. In college, the books were heavier, and included an edition of Kittredge’s Complete Works of Shakespeare (which had been my Dad’s, and I will never part with this tome).
In fact, I’ve never discarded any of these books; a few weeks back, with the “cite the fifth sentence on Page 56[?],” one of these was the one closest at hand.
Now, my backpack has a “laptop sleeve.”
Since I have my old physics books, and newer editions of some, I know firsthand that these books are much larger and heavier than they used to be, let alone more expensive. Both of these issues (size and cost) are of great importance to students today.
I have co-written a text that is online-only and world-readable; I get no royalties, but this (the online, not the penury) is clearly what has to be done. The fact that I hyphenate compound modifiers annoys the other authors.
BTW, I know well that the Complete Works are online; one of the folks who maintain such sites this has office space next to mine. However, my hard copy gets used so much that since it opens to my preferred pages, it’s actually quicker for me to use.
Jim in SE Mississippi on 09 Sep 2011 at 11:57 pm #
debbie, you have a thing about reading, don’t you?
Jerry in Fl on 10 Sep 2011 at 7:00 am #
me-”The nimber of letters.” JJ is there any way that we’ll ever to able to edit our comments?
emeritus Minnesota biologist on 10 Sep 2011 at 7:09 am #
We gave our older son, who is mathematically savvy, a next-to-top-of-the-line K&E slide rule [$28 at the time, '73 or so] at graduation. Electronic calculators put it on the shelf within a year or two. Maybe this won’t get moderated.
emeritus Minnesota biologist on 10 Sep 2011 at 7:10 am #
This is part 1 of the reply that got moderated. Jim: Thanks for the animation. I check NASA’s Cassini-Huygens Saturn site, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm , every few days. It has new info, often accompanied by still photos and intelligent lay-level explanations, but sometimes with motion, like icewater geysers from whatever moon it is that does that.
emeritus Minnesota biologist on 10 Sep 2011 at 7:11 am #
This is part 2. NASA’s Mars Rover site, http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html , is also worthwhile. Spirit got stuck last year, and is no longer reporting, but Opportunity is still going after 7.5 years, and they add new info when appropriate. Worth checking weekly.
emeritus Minnesota biologist on 10 Sep 2011 at 7:13 am #
And this is part 3, with the addressee spelled out. Curmudgeonly ex-prof: John Gambling was neat. He had a three-piece [I think] combo that played appropriate live music. One of them was named “Fraz” [I’ve no idea how it was actually spelled]. They sometimes played the can-can from Offenbach’s “Orpheus in the Underworld”, at which point listeners were supposed to lie on their backs and do “bicycle” exercises. Gambling was followed at 8 am, I think, by Mark Hawley [sp?], who did a whole 15 minute news program, with only three short commercials–beginning, middle, and end–resulting in a full 12 minutes or so of news, all narrated by one guy, no “Now we take you to whomever …” who simply repeats what you just heard.
emeritus Minnesota biologist on 10 Sep 2011 at 7:15 am #
I don’t know what that successful ploy tells us, but hooray!
Jim in SE Mississippi on 10 Sep 2011 at 7:28 am #
Jerry, you could always pretend you’re a member of Congress and ask unanimous consent to revise and extend your remarks. But you probably wouldn’t want to start pretending that if you recall what Mark Twain said: “Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”
Big_E on 10 Sep 2011 at 10:43 am #
The high school here went to e-readers.
debbie on 10 Sep 2011 at 11:00 am #
Jim in SEm: I’m obsessed.
curmudgeonly ex-professor on 10 Sep 2011 at 3:11 pm #
eMb-
I understand that I was hearing John B. Gambling as opposed to his son, John A. Gambling, or grandson, John R. Gambling. The program was called “Rambling With Gambling”. Can’t say I recall who did the news afterwards, but the name “Prescott Robinson” strikes me as familiar. Perhaps I am confusing personalities here.
Anyway, at 8:15 a.m., after the news, would come on the “Dorothy & Dick” show featuring Dorothy Kilgallen and her husband, Dick Kollmar. The show’s name might be a little different, but you get the idea.
Bob, near Mark on 10 Sep 2011 at 6:11 pm #
“Breakfast With Dorothy and Dick”
emeritus Minnesota biologist on 10 Sep 2011 at 8:09 pm #
Since I was listening starting in the late ’30s, it must have been John B. I’d forgotten about his son, and didn’t know about the grandson. Once I found WQXR, at age 13 or so, I didn’t listen to WOR very much. As a 4-7 year old or so, I did listen to “Uncle Don” [from 6-6:30?] on WOR, before he got caught making a profane remark with the mike still on at the end of a show. Actually, if current data are accurate, he was right about the parentage of some 10% of his audience.
mark in TTown on 10 Sep 2011 at 8:51 pm #
To Emeritus Minnesota Biologist, I just found the ‘ere’s ‘olloway in downloadable form on ITunes for $16.99. Again, it has the dog hospital track on it.
yooperbill on 11 Sep 2011 at 7:50 am #
In regard to todays cartoon. Jim, did you forget?
Jerry in Fl on 11 Sep 2011 at 7:37 pm #
Lewis Grizzard “That dog’ll bite chooo!”
Jerry in Fl on 11 Sep 2011 at 7:48 pm #
Jim, I don’t suppose that I will ever be elected to congress, but to paraphrase Meatloaf, one out of two ain’t bad. Btw, speaking of Twain, who was always looking for a way to make an extra buck, apparently he stocked up on what was called “author’s editions” and even today they are very common and are worth what I paid for them.
Jim in SE Mississippi on 11 Sep 2011 at 10:19 pm #
Next on my reading list is Twain’s “How to Tell a Story and Other Essays.” It must have worked for him.
Rick in Shermantown, Ohio on 12 Sep 2011 at 5:05 am #
It seems that gocomics is down this morning.
Or is it just my connection?
LJ on 12 Sep 2011 at 6:50 am #
My mother always called them “knapsacks” while I usually called them “backpacks” and my friends in school call them nothing but “bookbags”, which always frustrated me because I used it outside of school to carry things other than books. To the kids in school a backpack is a book-bag regardless of what is in it, pure and simple. Now you see a split between people who carry their textbooks and laptops in backpacks and a percentage of girls who carry their textbooks and laptops in their “purse”, which is really more of a book-bag.
Dave in MA on 12 Sep 2011 at 7:34 am #
Rick in Shermantown, Ohio
I can’t reach it either.
Mark in Boston on 12 Sep 2011 at 5:00 pm #
If a bookbag is for carrying books, what is a carpetbag for?
LeoZia on 12 Sep 2011 at 5:08 pm #
And now they are using Haversacks and calling them Messenger bags.
LeoZia on 12 Sep 2011 at 5:09 pm #
Carpet bag? Why that is just a fancy name for a grip–of course.
LeoZia on 12 Sep 2011 at 5:12 pm #
And the little book bags we carried in elementary school in the 50sand 60s? From the Military Surplus Store? They were actually called MUSETTE BAGS. WWII vintage!