Secretaries

1/21/2014

While rooting around in the basement looking for something, anything that I could toss out or give away, I came across a book that I have owned for years.  Title: "Standard Handbook for Secretaries"  published in 1973.  I believe that at one time early in my career, I probably had this book on my desk at work.  And, likely I actually used it.  

This book has been sitting in my basement since 1986 collecting dust and has had some water damage to the cover.  It looks like I haven't needed a handbook for a long time but for some reason I'm reluctant to just give it a toss.  Sentimental?  You bet.  There was one other book that I used to drag along with me when I switched jobs and it was a small book containing the spelling of the most common words.  I can't remember the title, but over the years I used it a lot.

Loving the internet like I do, I decided to check out the "Standard Handbook" to see if it's still available.  And it is.  Can't imagine who buys it, but on Amazon the edition published in 1969, you can buy the book new from $79.82 to $735.84!!!!  Ms. Hutchinson published the handbook from 1936 until 2007. I was hoping to find something on the internet regarding date of birth and/or death, but nothing popped up.  All in all, she apparently published 11 editions of the handbook and while I'm sure they are no longer widely used, there must be a few of us "gray hairs" that would find some, but not all, of the information valuable.

A sample of the contents: spelling, pronunciation, postal information, letter writing, telegraph services (now that's old data), extensive information about telephone services (including switchboard) and information about night and weekend telephone rates. Six pages are devoted to dictation (something I really dreaded) and 16 pages about typewritten work.  Once I dusted off my book, I chuckled with some of the things written about that are not, and haven't been for many years, relevant.

For instance, carbon paper (which I haven't used in years and years) copies instructions (and I'm not making this stuff up): 

• clear the desk of all papers but the job on hand. 
• Place the different kinds of paper to be used out on the desk, so there will be no constant pulling out of drawers to get new papers
• count the number of sheets of carbon paper to be used as well as count the number of white sheets to be used each time, before inserting the carbon paper.

All in all there were five steps for carbon copies and one instruction says: tap the top and left edges of each pack of pages until absolutely even.  

While the book is hideously outdated, I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed flipping through the pages of what is now ancient history, to see how both technology as well as office practices have changed over the years.   

And in case you're wondering, first class mail as of the 1973 edition was eight cents per ounce!

Well for all of you folks soaking it up in California, or in other warmer climates, it's snowing quite hard here and this is our first major snowstorm of the year (course we're only 21 days into the year).  Falling snow is so beautiful but snowing brings along other things not quite so lovely - like shoveling!  Luckily for me, as a mother of sons, I never had to shovel, that was something that was done by Jeff and/or the boys.  

Enjoy the weather wherever your are.

P