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The enduring life of a school desk

01.08.11

The desk in my living dwelling is small, probably made to accommodate children between first and third grades. It's made of wood in what I would call a block style. It's sturdy and extremely heavy, probably so the occupant couldn't easily move it around.

This is one of those desks that has an open back and a alcove in which to put your books, papers, lunch, writing instruments and the like. The height of the desktop is about even with the top of my knee.

In the schoolrooms of my maid, these solid wooden desks were usually unpainted and blond in color, probably varnished or covered with a preservative like Deft. Ours came in the robin's egg down; my wife says she liked the color.

I judge the age of this desk to be sometime in the first third to middle of the 20th Century.

There's a pencil/pen position carved along the front edge of the top and there's a two-inch diameter hole in the front right corner that was used to advance an inkwell.

I can tell you that inkwells were gone by the time I started to school in September - yes, indeed, September, 1954. Blackboards, big rural pencils with half-inch leads and window poles, we had. Inkwells and dip-pens, no.

Source: Baltimore Sun

Back-to-School Sales May Be Little Changed as Economy Slows

21.07.11

Back-to-school spending in the U.S. may be thimbleful changed from a year earlier as customers reject higher clothing prices and the slowing succinctness restrains electronics purchases.

Families with students in kindergarten through 12th grade plan to dissipate an average of about $603.63 on apparel and supplies, down less than 1 percent from $606.40 a year earlier, the State Retail Federation said, citing a survey of 8,684 consumers conducted by BIGresearch from July 1 to July 6.

Slowing U.S. profitable growth and the 9.2 percent unemployment rate may weigh on shopping in the season, which trails only the holidays as retailers’ alternate-largest sales period of the year. About 44 percent of shoppers said the conservatism was forcing them to spend less, the group said.

“Families aren’t opposed to spending on what they prerequisite, but parents want their children to take a good look around at what they already have before deciding what to buy for back to school this year,” said Matthew Shay, president of the Washington-based NRF, said in a expression.

Source: Bloomberg