Just stick it!

Today I'm celebrating the invention of the cork board

On this date in 1891, John T Smith patented the cork board. A cork board is a framed section of cork typically backed with wood or plastic. Cork boards are often used as bulletin boards where announcements and information can be easily posted using sticking pins or tacks. You've likely passed by a corkboard recently. They are found in many places, from college campuses, classrooms, corporate offices, in hallways in many businesses, and in the home. They are often used to post information for others to reference. In classrooms, student artwork is posted. On college campuses, you'll likely see advertisements of local bands, books to sell, tutoring services, etc. In offices and businesses you may see job postings. At home, you may see a grocery list, the calendar of events for the week, a report card that needs to be signed, and photographs.

In my home office, I created a little planning section on one wall that is covered with cork. There is no backing of wood or plastic though. It just includes several squared sections of cork that I purchased from a local office supply store. What's on my corkboard today? A to-do list, a calendar of events, mindmaps of the main topics for the next two wikis I am planning to create, a table of anticipated profit ranges I anticipate from my next big business idea (my dream), some post-it sheets describing two new blogs I've thought about starting, and the organization of a new e-book I want to write. There's a variety of color on my cork board -- from the push pins, to the postits, and to the snippets of paper with my big ideas and goals. Oh, how I wish for one solid month to dedicate work on the items on my cork board!

Before my vacation, I designed some posters to take to my Mom about her available rental property. One afternoon we took a drive around the community looking for prime spots to display the posters. We first stopped at the local dollar store to buy some push pins and some scissors (so that the telephone number could be easily torn from the poster). With the price of gas, it was much more cost effective to drop by the dollar store in Hurley than drive all the way back to the farm for the scissors we forgot. We stopped by the local grocery stores, the feed store, and the hardware store. (Does your community have a local feed store? LOL) One grocery store's bulletin board had been stolen; only its frame remained. Most had a cork board outside the entrance. Mostly there were ads for vehicles, lawn mowers, tractors, and dogs. Of course, there were the posters about the various services people could perform, like housekeeping and lawn care.

Today, I quickly jotted down some of the many ways I've used a cork board:

• Posted pics of my favorite things
• Posted my to-do list
• Posted an ad to sell something
• Posted a pic of a dream (vacation spot, new car, those profit margins)
• Posted a reminder (dental appointment card)
• Posted some info don't want to lose (phone number)
• Posted a message
• Posted tickets that I did not want to lose
• Posted tickets for the show I wanted to remember fondly, often
• Posted a receipt for something I needed to handle (for taxes, for reimbursement, for a rebate)
• Posted info to help me organize my thoughts

Today, I'm reminded that the cork board is a great invention -- one that can be used to stick just about anything you want to remember or to announce. Sure, we've got the PDA, e-mail, instant messaging, blogs, wikis, e-Bay, Craigslist, postits for the desktop, etc. However, the corkboard, although a sort-of old- fashioned concept, definitely still works and is a valuable tool for many.

Here's a little video I'd like to stick on my cork board of things to celebrate -- it's a creative little stopmotion video created using the cork board:

Tackiness

As posted on YouTube by soysteph

Image credit: Pin-artsy from Wikimedia Commons