Needs vs Wants, pt. 1

[shalanna]

Remember those old Dymo Labelmakers that were shaped like a gun and emitted sticky embossed plastic tape with whatever message you wanted on them? And how the "G" always looked like "C" (which was no small problem for the "G"erneths)? And how the sticky stuff would get unsticky on one corner and the label would start to peel off? And how the letters were never evenly spaced, and how you made your hand so tired writing anything of substance?

I want one.



My old one is gone. It was in my childhood desk next to my sealing wax (remember THAT? It was a big fad in the 1960s and sold at Hallmark shops--I had my initial in two forms, a Pisces fish, and a LOVE in those puffy Love Story letters) and my decks of playing cards with cool graphics (I had several that I never used because they were so pretty, and three decks of "Schlumberger" cards that Daddy got in France and that I have never seen again) and it disappeared after Mama's house fire.

I think I've found the modern equivalent.

Dymo sells a LabelBuddy now. The labels look like what I remember.

Those labels will be great for Artist Trading Cards. If you can still get the thing. Says you can get it at WallyWorld and at art supply stores.

I shall look tomorrow. May have to stickyfinger it, as we only have $300 in the bank and just paid all the bills and will not get a paycheck until Monday the Fifteenth. But if I see one . . . it is MINE.

Comments

[ladystarblade.livejournal.com]

Hi, happened to find this entry by way of a friend's friend page...and you know, I think my dad had four or five of those things. Used them all the time when I was a kid...I'm going over to my mom's house and I'll see if she's still got them, if you're interested. Might still have some of the tape too...

[shalanna.livejournal.com]

Wow! What a blast from the past! Your dad must have been a gadget person like mine . . . and like me. *Grin* I figure they're not making the tape for the old ones any more. That would be the only hitch with the older ones. They always change SOMETHING so they can sell you the new version, doncha know. *Grin*

I did find the new version on eBay for around $10, but WalMart's online presence doesn't have them. I'll check WalMart and the office supply store later today, if I can climb out from under this huge stack of unanswered e-mail and animated laundry (down, boy! You're going into the washer next!) You should post photos of the ones you find, if you find them. That'll attract more readers to your journal (assuming you WANT the kind of readers that this would attract. *grin*)

Welcome to the friendslist. Thanks for writing!

[rm.livejournal.com]

I had a red one when I was a kid. Hah. Haven't thought of those in years.

[shalanna.livejournal.com]

Did your hands get tired? I used to have to stop after one or two labels because it was so HARD . . . TO . . . PUSH.

What would be cool is if there were a font that looked like those old strips. I've always wanted a font that's like the puffy Peter Max "LOVE" letters from the seventies, too. But I've never seen anyone take a crack at that. . . .

[rm.livejournal.com]

I've seen fonts like that, but I couldn't tell you where to get one offhand. And yeah, those things totally killed my hands.

[dennismhavens.livejournal.com]

I had a close friend back in by musician days in Las Vegas, the late George Mosse. If you have any of my old recordings (big band, small jazz combo, even 4-voice singing group), he's on there, playing alto, tenor and soprano sax, as well as clarinet. He even sang 3rd part in the vocal group. He bought one of those Dymo labelmakers and first used it to put his name on his saxophone case. That seemed eminently logical; little did I know that George was just getting warmed up.

Next step was to make labels for all his instruments! He even had an old alto flute, pitched in G, that he played on jazz gigs, and he found room on the thing to apply yet another label.

This was all still in the realm of good sense. But on my next visit to his home, I noticed that his German-born wife's collection of Bavarian beer vessels had a new look: each one now bore a label that read, "beer stein."
The doors to every room in his house held a label. In his den, which was where his sound system and other musicianly comforts (a modest bar) resided, the lunacy went on. Even his ashtray (this was the Sixties in Las Vegas, where except for Mormoms, everyone smoked everywhere), a ceramic representation of a coiled snake, helpfully let one and all know that it was, indeed, an ashtray.

It was a good thing that George's wife had a will of her own, or I swear he would have labeled her, their daughter, and their two sons. I guess we'll never know if he would have used their actual names, or simply stuck labels on their foreheads that read WIFE, DAUGHTER, SON 1 and SON 2.

George is gone now, but his spirit lives on in my grandson, who used HIS Dymo to make and affix a label to my bedroom door, one that says, with true George Mosse succinctness, GRANDPA.

At least he didn't stick it directly on me.

[shalanna.livejournal.com]

Heh.

You know I have some of your recordings--they came off that CD and I ripped them into iTunes. iTunes has no idea what the names of the tracks are, though, and I only recognize a few of 'em. (TRACK LIST HINT)

Some people have a need to label everything. Be glad your label says GRANDPA and not something more difficult to explain **GRIN** ("Occupant" might be neutral)

[dennismhavens.livejournal.com]

Yep, I do know you have some of my stuff. The question is, WHICH stuff. If you can give me a clue (big band, vocal group, jazz combo, etc.), I can no doubt send you complete track lists. If iTunes DID know the titles of those old originals of mine, and the groups that played them, I think I'd grow a little concerned. :)

I'm grateful my grandson's label for my room doesn't say TOO MUCH JUNK IN HERE.

[imafarmgirl.livejournal.com]

This is what we use to braille things like to put on small labels. They even make magnetic tape now.

[shalanna.livejournal.com]

OH . . . THAT is cool. I wondered about that. It's the perfect application for the labels.

[imafarmgirl.livejournal.com]

I have two of them but I think one is broken so I need to find the other. They still make clear and red tape and the magnetic tape too. If you are blind you can braille cans of food.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

We had a couple of those when I was a kid. Not just the gun-shaped ones, but one smaller one where the squeezy handle was just a triangle. I was always absconding with that one to play starship (it looked kind of like the Enterprise sans nacelles), and my dad was constantly yelling at me for it.

Much fun, those.