This notebook was a fun eBay find– so retro, with a kind of sexy-ugly vibe. Often I see things like this and just admire them without buying, but for some reason, I had to have this one, even though lots of things about it don’t fit my usual notebook preferences.
The size is about 6-1/2 x 9-1/2 x 7/8″– I guess the closest thing you’d find today might be a Filofax A5 size organizer, but I think the Woolworth notebook is narrower. It’s made of a faux-leather textured vinyl with a mottled green color to it. It’s a very old-fashioned green– I feel like I knew someone with car seats made of this material in the 1970s.
The edges zip closed with a rather chunky zipper, which is sewn on with brown edging.
Inside, the lining is a black vinyl with a different texture. There is a sort of pocket on each side– oddly, the pockets are quite shallow and open outward. I guess they figured they didn’t have to hold things in very securely since the notebook would be zipped closed.
The rings are attached to the cover with a rivet that goes all the way through, so you can’t open the rings up and adjust them if they have gaps– which they sort of do, slightly. The ring spacing does match other A5 notebooks and Filofaxes.
The paper that’s included is obviously what originally came with it, as it has a cover sheet with all the information about the cover itself. I’m not sure why they call it a “Miniature” Zipper Book, as “miniature” would suggest something much smaller to me. The 5-1/2 x 8-1/2″ paper is close to Filofax and other A5 notebook paper sizing– theirs are 5-7/8 x 8-1/4″, so they’d be a little too wide to fit this binder. You can still get basic 5-1/2 x 8-1/2″ looseleaf paper, but the ones I saw seem to have different hole punch layouts, for either 3 or 7 rings. So if I end up using this actively, I may have to either trim 6-ring A5 sheets, or punch different holes in the right size paper!
This notebook was priced at $2.99 according to the cover sheet– but the question is when? I would guess maybe the mid-1960s– it feels very 1950s somehow but the Woolworths company address has a 5-digit zip code and those weren’t used until 1963. The notebook doesn’t say where it was made, but I would guess it was in the USA.
This Woolworth notebook is an odd but pleasing part of my collection– I never realized I had such a soft spot for pleather in baby poop green, but this notebook definitely brought it out!