You were nobody unless you had a Speedball

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NIKON D70 - 1/1600 sec, f1.8 at 50mm

The school gala is coming up in a couple of weeks. Gabba is on the organizing committee and so has been a buzy little bugger. She's been pestering the hell out of all our (quite possibly now ex) friends for donations to sell in the White Elephant (Jumble Sale for you Americans). Rik and Kim (Happy Anniversary) had organized a box of books. And bugger me if right there on the top wasn't a Speedball.

"No fucking way" was my incredulous comment. I haven't seen a Speedball since I was at Bucklands Beach Intermediate school (with Barbara Kendall I might add). So many memories of past school work came flooding back as we flicked through the pages. I can clearly remember my 6 page paper on China, and the Port of Auckland, and the smoking propaganda studies they made us do. The essays we had to write where we would spend 4 hours on the heading and 15 minutes writing the page of crap for whatever the teacher made us write about. Planets or the maori of New Zealand or Australia or some other subject the New Zealand Govt thought we absolutely should know about.

Jeez, I can still remember the feeling of trying to scab a Speedball off someone for just 10 minutes. I hope we're providing adequately for our kids at school.

Looking back through that book now, it's oddly curious that I always chose the simplest, no fuss, plain fonts for my work. It's still what I prefer now, nearly 30 years later. Just look at the heading of this site up there on this page now. I'm not sure what that says about my personality.

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Posted: Thursday, 3 November, 2005 21:13

Captured: 2005:11:03 19:43:09

Add your own comment

  • Can we borrow it?
    manda - Friday, 4 November, 2005 8:08
  • I guess you can use it after I've finished my homework!
    Dave - Friday, 4 November, 2005 8:31
  • As Jerry Seinfeld says in his book Seinlanguage, "It's my book, but you can read it."
    RikiJ - Saturday, 5 November, 2005 8:35
  • Haha, my Dad used to have one of these books and gave it to me when I was a bit younger. (It might still be around somewhere.) I used to spend hours tracing the letters onto plain paper to make a sign for my bedroom door, or such. Thanks for bringing back some memories.
    beaumitchell - Monday, 12 June, 2006 16:06
  • Have you still got it? I used a style from this book to lettermy first car right down the side. Now I have a model of the car and want to letter that!
    Lawrence Boul - Wednesday, 1 November, 2006 19:04
  • I'll see if I can find it again Lawrence. As Rik says above, it's my book but you can borrow it. Stand by please caller.
    Dave - Wednesday, 1 November, 2006 19:12

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