Old calendar pages as practice signatures made guiding new binders WAY easier.

4 comments

4 Comments

Man, that phone book paper detail is perfect. My dad did the exact same thing but with the blank sides of those mass-mailed "prize winner" notices. That super thin, slick paper really did mimic check stock, and you could get a whole stack for free from the recycling bin. It makes you wonder what other throwaway papers people used back then for practice.

pauljackson1mo ago

Yeah that reminds me of my grandpa... he used to practice his signature on the blank backs of those old phone book pages. He'd fill a whole page with loops and lines, just getting the feel for it. Said the paper was thin and kind of slick, almost like bank check paper. Makes total sense now, using stuff that was just going in the trash anyway to get your hand steady before the real thing. Kind of a lost art now, with everything being digital... and I guess phone books are too.

zarat371mo ago

That "frantic scribble that looks like a doctor's note" is too real. My signature on a digital pad at the post office last week was just a sad, shaky line that the clerk squinted at for a solid ten seconds before shrugging and letting it through. Guess my grandpa's phone book practice was the difference between looking like a statesman and looking like you're signing under duress.

grace271mo ago

That "lost art" line from @pauljackson is so true. My signature now is just a frantic scribble that looks like a doctor's note on my credit card receipts. I tried to practice it nicely once and filled a whole page, but it just devolved into weird loops that looked like a toddler's drawing of a rollercoaster. Guess I missed the phone book paper training era.