A rather shocking idea to today's consuming mind.... we used to COPY problems out of the book onto PAPER and work them out!!!
The teacher had reams of, what looked like, recycled paper. They would hand out one or two pieces and for math we copied the whole problem out and worked it. For word problems we just wrote down the math part. In Language Arts we wrote out WHOLE sentences!
The same books were used in classes year after year. We had our names in the books and could see who had them the previous years. It gave you a sense of educational history in some small way.
During some of our lean years of homeschooling I got a library card for a local college. They had an "educational library" that was for students that were taking education classes. GOLD MINE! It not only had the textbook but the teacher's book, workbooks, audio visual materials, cd's, sometimes manipulatives - all in one container to check out. Of course we couldn't write in the books!
A friend of mine got plastic sleeves for her kids to put over the book pages so they didn't have to copy the problems or work in the books. This way she uses the same books for all her 6 kids (and friends and relatives!).