We used to have to read and write upside down and back to front...
A job I had as a yoof was with the Bulawayo Chronicle in the advertising department. One of my duties was to proof read the adverts on the slab before the flong was moulded for the page. It was all in lead type, either hand placed or strips of Linotype. One read it from the top, upside down, backwards, the wrong way round and upwards to the bottom.
Slab: The paged size frame on a slate bench that the type was set into.
Flong: A fibre sheet that was pressed onto the type to produced a casting face. The page was cast from it and bent to suit the printing rollers.
Linotype: A machine that had an ABC keyboard and dropped casting letters so that a strip of type could be cast from them. The typecasts used to clatter down a chute all the time they were being operated.