The ritual was followed every August. You would reluctantly drag your still-in-a-summer-vacation-mood bones to the store with your mom and pick out the stuff you needed at the hated Back to School sale. The items would include soft lead pencils with enough heft to beat someone to death, a wooden ruler with a strip of steel embedded in one edge, a compass for drawing perfect circles, albeit with holes pierced through the paper at their centers, a plastic protractor, and a huge monstrosity made of processed wood pulp known as a Big Chief tablet.
Schools provided lists of required items to parents spelling out the necessary supplies, citing the Big Chief tablets by name. After all, second-graders were simply not ready for finer-lined spiral notebooks, what with using those tree-branch-sized soft-leads for writing implements (and building up our right forearms in the process).
John-Boy Walton used a Big Chief to hone the writing skills that would get him off of the farm. I was unable to track down the exact date the venerable tablet debuted, but needless to say it has served untold millions of schoolkids in the 20th century.
Walking into a 1968 classroom at White Rock elementary school at tiny Jane, Missouri, you would have spied rows of small chairs with built-in tabletops, each with a red Big Chief tablet nearby ready to record the thoughts of its juvenile owner. Had you arrived at my assigned seat, you'd have noticed one with an unintelligible name scrawled across its top. While many of its pages would be used for legitimate classwork, others would be devoted to love notes to Melanie Spurlock.
The tablet stayed in tune with the rapidly changing Baby Boomer times, in the 70's spawning a Son of Big Chief tablet featuring a Native American looking like he was ready to take over Alcatraz.
So many generations of kids used Big Chiefs, you would have thought they would last forever. Not so. The Western Tablet Company of Saint Joseph, Missouri devised the original Big Chiefs, and later merged with Mead Products (and thereby vanished). The last Big Chief rolled out of the factory in January, 2001.
Oh well, I suppose Big Chief tablets have probably been labeled as politically incorrect, along with about 90% of the things we Boomers grew up with. But it was good enough to help John-Boy Walton become a professional writer.
Comments (13)
I was in elementary school in the 50's and remember the big chiefs. Drawing hot rods and airplanes was big back then and I probably filled hundreds of them. You could SEE the wood chunks in their pages. Heck, you could use some of them as toothpicks.
Posted by tommy cox | February 18, 2007 11:38 AM
Posted on February 18, 2007 11:38
I had Blue Horse tablets; what was the difference. I remember you could collect Blue Horse decals and turn them in for prizes.
Posted by Sugarboy Wilson | February 18, 2007 4:22 PM
Posted on February 18, 2007 16:22
I got a splinter from the paper.
Posted by Jon Dowden | February 19, 2007 3:25 PM
Posted on February 19, 2007 15:25
Does anyone remember the clear, shiny, pink block erasers that smelled sooo good. I remember selling them at the bookstore in our school in 3rd and 4th grade. Even though they didn't work as well as the regular erasers, I always wanted one for the smell!
Posted by Linda Ludy | February 24, 2007 9:54 AM
Posted on February 24, 2007 09:54
I recently came across a mini Big Chief Tablet and was instantly taken back to the grade school days. Ahhhh how I loathed them! I remember doodling and scribbling in the old big chief instead of paying attention which became the hallmark of my school years.
I was sad to find out that Big Chief is no more. I am sure it was a corporate decision to be more politically correct. Too bad. I miss the old Big Chief!
_s
Posted by Squid | February 28, 2007 11:26 AM
Posted on February 28, 2007 11:26
where can I buy Big Chief tablets today?
Posted by tony griffith | July 12, 2008 9:56 PM
Posted on July 12, 2008 21:56
The type of paper used in tablets such as the Big Chief have helped me through University, a Masters Degree and many years of therapy notes as a Speech Language Pathologist. Why not other types of paper you ask? I've found it to be a paper capable of taking all inks quickly...hence fast class notes and clear therapy reports:) My last batch of tablets are, alas, used up. I've been looking for more without success. Does anyone know where I could purchase tablets with this type of ruled paper? Thanks for you help.
Posted by Syd | January 8, 2009 9:27 AM
Posted on January 8, 2009 09:27
Does anyone remember similar tablets that had an elephant on the front?
Posted by Jim | April 14, 2009 11:45 AM
Posted on April 14, 2009 11:45
"Just get out the old "Red Chief" tablet, draw a line down the middle of the page then write the good ideas about this decision on one side and write the bad things that might happen on the other side. You are always accountable for your decisions!" said my Father, John Stanley. I was telling my students about decision making and their choices and the Red Chief tablet. They looked at me in total disbelief and then I tried to explain what I've always been told, looked for one of these tables to actually show the kids, found the table had died January 2001. Wonder when accountability for our decisions died?
Posted by Beth Zies | April 19, 2009 5:58 AM
Posted on April 19, 2009 05:58
Ok, I just don't tremember this? Is this just a western states thing? Although you say John Boy Walton used one and he was in Virginia? Maybe we had them, I just don't remember! Oh, I wonder where ole Melanie Spurlock??? Is these days? Worth a retro track down Ron? Where did those old flames get off too? I remember in grade school using that large lined rag sheets for writing letters. Notebook paper is all I remember and also those black and white spotted composition books. I always drawn war pictures and spaceships. Remember having to carry all those needed supplies in a good ole hard to find today cigar box! Those same cigar boxes used for grade school valentines. Those large pink erasers weren't worth a damn either! Made more mess then then error! I remember the wooden ruler, but plastic came along. Fountain pens? Not us! Ballpoints came around. Never had to learn the art of fountain pens! Mom did! Don't forget your blotter!
Posted by Rivers End | June 4, 2009 8:41 PM
Posted on June 4, 2009 20:41
You know, the funny thing with the PC crap is that I do not see any insult in a tablet being called Big Chief. No kid wants a tablet that has an insulting symbol or name. We do not name sports teams the Braves, the Indians, the Redskins or other such names cause we dislike them. Would you want your team to be called something disgusting, weak, or undesirable? Yet, many are the complaints of such symbols or names, as if we intended harm or looked down on such things. Thin skins who look for excusive cause for offense do not solve anything or remedy anything. In fact, I think they make things worse.
Not too mention, such reactions are rather infantile. It is this insanity that makes many of us boomers long for the old days of sanity and reason, so long gone now.
Posted by Scott Irv | June 4, 2009 11:49 PM
Posted on June 4, 2009 23:49
I am looking for the name of the extra fat pencils we used in elementary school during the 60's. Does anyone remember the name of them (company, etc.)? And even better, does anyone know where I can locate a picture of them?
I LOVE this site. I just found it a couple of weeks ago and cannot get enough of it. Thank you, Ron, for digging up all of these sweet memories.
Posted by baton1 | June 14, 2009 1:52 AM
Posted on June 14, 2009 01:52
I'm looking for a picture of the Son Of Big Chief notebook paper. This was the stuff that came in deep lavender, apple green, pepto pink and marigold yellow. The stuff we forbidden to turn papers in on. GLORIOUS stuff. The cover was hippie with a headband and glasses, obviously both the Son of Big Chief and The Dude. :D
Posted by Aubergine | August 11, 2009 11:40 PM
Posted on August 11, 2009 23:40