My grandfather owned a printing company on Highland in Hollywood. Because of this, the Young family knows odd pits of old school printing arcana. “Padding compound” is a liquid which dries into a rubbery adhesive which is used at the top of tearaway scratchpads.
As children, my grandfather would go to the bank and get fresh one dollar bills. Then he’d put a stack of bills on a dollar-sized piece of cardboard and paint padding compound at the top to make tearaway scratchpads of actual money. He used them for stocking stuffers and bonus birthday gifts. My cousins and I all loved them.
In sorting through my father’s effects, Elizabeth and I found a huge tub of padding compound. My father had tearing up scratch paper into business card-size pieces and then making tiny scratchpads out of them to use for his to-do lists and such.