DEBORAH CROMBIE: Last week I made my now more or less annual trek down to Round Top in central Texas (halfway between Houston and Austin, if that helps) with my daughter for the spring antiques show. I've written about Round Top before--I don't think there is anything else quite like it--and it is such a huge treat, and so anticipated. The big ticketed event of the spring week is a place called Marburger Farm , but there are lots of other venues, most set up in tents, like Marburger, but some in warehouse-like buildings and even barns, plus shopping in the town of Round Top itself.
Last year I scored a couple of real treasures including a beautiful quilt and my now-beloved Staffordshire dog. This year I said I wasn't really looking for anything, but there was something I'd been keeping an eye out for the last couple of years.
Here's a hint, from this little snippet of a scene in A KILLING OF INNOCENTS where Melody visits her father's newspaper office:
Her
spirits rose as she came out of High Street Kensington tube station into the
Sunday bustle of the street. Across the way, the bells in the tower of St. Mary
Abbott’s chimed one o’clock. The midday sun lit the Great War Memorial, still
bedecked in fading poppy wreaths. The flower stall in the church forecourt was
doing a brisk business, and Melody decided she’d treat herself to a bouquet of
something bright on the way home, red tulips, perhaps.
But
first, a little research. When she’d checked in at the paper’s security desk,
she took the lift up to the top floor. The newsroom never slept, of course, but
the paper always felt quieter to her on a Sunday.
When she
was a child, she’d been awed by the clatter and roar of the presses under Fleet
Street, but those days were gone, with the presses moving first to Wapping in South
London, and now to a huge plant in Broxbourne, in Hertfordshire.
In the
newsroom, the clack and ding of typewriters had long since given way to the
soft taps of keyboards, but her father kept a collection of vintage typewriters
on the sideboard in his office. She had been fascinated by them, and the first
thing she’d ever typed had been on his mint-green portable Olivetti. No one had
wanted typewriters then—now they were worth a small fortune.
And this year I struck gold.
What a great display! And more!
A bonanza of typewriters!
All working, with manuals, although some of the manuals are copies rather than originals.
There was an Olivetti, like the one in Ivan Talbot's office (although not mint green) but it was way out of my price range. I tried the key action on the ones that were more affordable, and there was one that was just the ticket. In the first photo, it's the one on the righthand side, second from the bottom.
It's a 1957 Smith-Corona, and that was the clincher for me. My mom typed on Smith-Coronas. By the time I was in highschool and hunting and pecking a bit on her machine, she had an electric, but she had manual portables before that. (My parents had their own business and worked from home, so my mom was always typing.) Interestingly, the first Smith-Corona portable electric went on the market the year the same year as this manual model, 1957.
I didn't actually learn to type (because I was lazy and my mom would type my highschool papers for me) until my stint in secretarial school between highschool and college, and that was on an IBM Selectric. That's one of the reasons why my laptop is a Lenovo Thinkpad--it's the same touch keypad as the Selectric.
I love the way the key action feels on the Smith-Corona, too, although it turns out that the ribbon lifter needs some adjustment (Rick says he can fix it for me) so I haven't really had a chance to practice.
One thing I wasn't prepared for is how heavy the thing is! I complain about my little laptop which is NOTHING compared to the typewriter. The typewriter weighs a ton! (Don't think I'l be carrying it on a plane, or anywhere else, any time soon.) And no, I definitely do NOT want to try to write a book on a manual typewriter. I am incredibly grateful for word processing and all the associated modern technology.
But I'm fascinated by the history and development of typing, and I like to think of writers before me, tapping away on those lovely bouncy keys. Not to mention that in a power outage, like our Julia Spencer-Fleming is experiencing at the moment, I could actually work...
REDS and readers, any fun typewriter memories for you? What did you learn to type on?
And isn't it cool that typewriters (and fountain pens) are a big thing with younger people these days? (Next thing you know there may be a cult for rotary dial phones...)
I love typewriters! I learned to type [in high school] on a manual typewriter . . . and, yes, typewriters do indeed have a certain charm [as do fountain pens]. For a while, I had a second job in a print shop . . . by then, electric typewriters were just about everywhere.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'd definitely join the rotary dial phone cult [and, yes, I do indeed have a rotary dial phone] . . . my grandchildren are fascinated by it . . . but you need an adapter that converts the rotary dial "click" to touch tones in order to actually use it to make phone calls . . . .
Not sure I'm in on the rotary dial!
DeleteWe always had a big black manual in the house - my father wrote long typed letters to his brother-in-law and later to me. For high school graduation I was given an Olivetti portable that I took to college (remember typing on erasable bond paper?), and I typed my doctoral dissertation ten years later on an IBM selectric with exchangeable font balls. The first time I experienced the backspace-and-correct feature with the white tape, it was magical.
ReplyDeleteGlad you found your model, Debs, and thanks for the stroll down typing memory lane. Did you know Tom Hanks is a major typewriter collector, and that there's a movie about typewriters? My friend Tim in SF, also a serious collector, even has a bit part in it.
Edith, you just caused me to remember how a typewriter was the diary of our lives. In the war years when my father and his brothers were at university, my grandparents would put 3 pieces of paper with carbons in between, under the roller and type the weekly missive to the boys. At their various places of living they would do the same. As you can imagine the letters would pass in the mail. My grandparents would speak of goings on in town and how people were coping as well as what ships were in the harbour - it was war, and the harbour was ice-free and there was a ship repair shop. I am surprised that words were not redacted, but I know a lot of the identification information was in code.
DeleteThis never stopped, and when we went off to university, my parents did the same thing. As we became adults and parents, we followed suit. For a while there were 7 copies now between onionskin paper as real paper was too thick, but still typed with a typewriter. Eventually it went to computer letters written as a document and sent by email. Unfortunately it has now died out.
I have all the original letters back to the war years and my grandparents - a great find for some historian wanting to know a bit of social history.
Margo, that’s really cool! My mom typed me letters when I was in college, but I doubt any historians would be interested in their content! I probably didn’t appreciate her efforts as much as I should have, but certainly do now (like so much of parental kindnesses, we only “get it” when we become parents). — Pat S
DeleteMargo, what a wonderful bit of history! And you and Edith have reminded me that when I lived in England and Scotland, my mom typed letters to me every week on airmail paper--remember that? I don't think I still have them, sadly.
DeleteI had a baby blue manual typewriter as a kid to learn to hunt & peck. But I had to break that bad habit when I had typing class in grades 7-9 in Toronto. We used heavy Olympia typewriters in class. By grade 8, I was typing 130 WPM and scored a 100 grade. In grade 9, I was one of 3 students in our class at the provincial typing championship. I remember we had to lug our typewriters into our teacher's car to take to the competition. Alas, I did not win any prizes but that fast typing skill was so useful in typing drafts of numerous technical reports while at Environment Canada!
ReplyDeleteA typing championship! Who knew?
DeleteIn the US a typing competition would have been considered sexist when I was in high school in the late seventies. They had them in the US, mostly in the midwest in the fifties.
DeleteGrace, you're a better typist than I am, or ever was. Even in secretarial school I could never quite get my speed up to snuff. But it does the trick.
DeleteI love typewriters! My mother used to rent typewriters (she was a writer as well as a not quite made it opera singer, and we moved a lot, so she would rent typewriters and pianos wherever we went (unless she could use the church piano.) So, when I was 10 or so, I was typing my little stories with two fingers on a rented typewriter she would let me use. Later, after a short course at business school, I could actually type, and I used a typewriter through college. It was a portable I could afford, but, looking back, I don't remember the model. I loved that click-click-click of the keys and sometimes miss it. But, like Deborah, would never go back to trying to write a novel on a typewriter. Cut and paste, copy and paste, all so wonderful!
ReplyDeleteElizabeth, what an interesting life you and your mom led!
DeleteDeborah, interesting is an understatement. But a lot of rich memories came from it. 🙂
DeleteI learned to type on a manual typewriter in junior high school. I remember having to look at the projector on the wall, not on our fingers. I also remember the joy to hear when we all hit the return carriage and the *ding* it made.
ReplyDeleteMy husband reminded me that when I was in secretarial school, I had to practice with rubber bands around my fingers. I'd completely forgotten that!
DeleteIt's in the third photo, the black Royal, second one down! My mom had that exact model, which I learned to type on. Fun at first, until I discovered Selectrics in high school typing class. Still, I wish I still had it, although it never worked well after that evening I spilled hot cocoa all over it.
ReplyDeleteOops.
I love that your Royal is in the photo, Annette!!! How fun! It was a beauty.
DeleteI learned typing in Grade 11, on a manual upright. I'm glad to have learned such a useful skill so early. I typed many a uni essay on a friend's manual typewriter, and I loved it when IBM's Selectric came out with a 3-line memory erase model: Wow! I regret giving away the antique Mercedes Benz upright that my parents had given me for Christmas when I was about 10. It was beautiful -- and heavy, and I just didn't appreciate it enough in my young adulthood when I was moving a lot.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that Mercedes Benz made typewriters! Learning all sorts of interesting typewriter history today!
DeleteI had that Smith-Corona that appears in the last photo of the blog post. I learned to type on that before I took Typing in high school.
ReplyDeleteThen we are typewriter twins, Jay!
DeleteI have a photograph of my father at a typewriter ca. age 9 in 1925. I longed to be a writer and so my only request for my own 12th birthday was a typewriter. I got an ORANGE (it was 1971) portable Hermes. I was very disappointed in the font, which was cramped and ugly, but I never told him and did love typing. I started taking typing classes in junior high school and became a proficient typist, something I've used all my life. I graduated to standard Royals, then the purring joy of Selectrics for various jobs, then the incandescent pleasure of owning my own, with interchangeable font balls, which Dad bought for me when the machines were replaced at his job.
ReplyDeleteI bought a standard Royal in 1984 when I was living without electricity and thought I would be living off-grid for the rest of my life (!) but for a school job in 1986 I was required to learn early desktop publishing on a Mac. Oh, my. For someone who had always thought through her fingers, computers were a swoon-worthy experience. It's been nothing but computers ever since. (Selden)
Selden, I love your description of the "purring joy" of the Selectrics. They were revolutionary, and so fabulous to type on.
DeleteI never learned to properly type. 😢 My Mom gave me a little portable Hermes Rocket typewriter with French accent keys as a high school graduation present. (I was a French major in college’) I loved that little typewriter. Ma y decades later I went to look for it in our attic and found that my husband had thrown it out. Almost cause for a divorce. Suzette Ciancio
ReplyDeleteNever too late, Suzette! But my husband didn't either, and I'm not sure just how he manages all his keyboarding.
DeleteMy Dad had an old vintage typewriter that I loved. I used to practise my typing on it before class and it made the Selectrics we used in class extremely easy. But I never was particularly accurate! And I never found out what happened to the vintage one. I still want it. Chris Wallace
ReplyDeleteYou might find a replacement, Chris, with all the vogue for the vintage typewriters now.
DeleteSuzette, me too, French major! I also had a little portable with French accent keys to type papers in college. How I wish I hadn't gotten rid of it, though I'm sure I wouldn't actually use it!
ReplyDeleteStill, it would be fun to have, Lucy.
DeleteI am probably dating myself here, but my first thought when viewing your photos of ‘old’ typewriters was that those were ‘new’ old typewriters!
ReplyDeleteMy mother was a secretary in the late 40’s. We always had the same typewriter in the dining room, where she would type things for my father’s business, and of course our school assignments – I remember being one of the few kids to hand in a typed paper. The only typewriter we ever had was large, very heavy and with definite had to push down keys. Of course, there was a sticky ribbon that invariably tangled requiring all kids to leave the room while my mother had a fit! The one in my father’s business was exactly the same.
I was given an electric typewriter – blue - to go to university in 1967. I could not type. Still, my room was a favourite for everyone to visit come term paper time, as it saved a trip trying to get a typewriter space at the library. It was a good thing that I was in Science, and really didn’t need the thing.
I still can’t type in spite of taking lessons several times, and as my fingers seem to get less dexterous the backspace seems to be the key most used. What amazes me about kids today is their ability to use a keyboard. Are they really typing or is it some form of the old newspaper two fingered ability? The first child was taught proper typing in grade 10 (?1995). It was a part of the curriculum, just like auto mechanics for basics for everyone was. Every kid had to take it and pass. None of the rest had a class like this, yet the two boys are masters of the keyboard – how? I have no idea.
Now as for the rotary dial or old phones in particular – what another wonderful topic for another time.
Margo, I also have a vintage Underwood, circa early 1900s maybe, that was a gift from a friend. Talk about heavy!!! You could anchor a boat with that thing, and I've never really tried to type on it. It may be that you can get replacement ribbons for it now, since vintage is in.
DeleteMy children were born in 1987. No keyboarding classes. We gave them a simple program to use on their laptops. They learned to type correctly and quickly. I learned to type in ine twelve week class in middle school, sixth grade.
DeleteI’ve never liked typing. I took typing as a senior in high school. We used manual typewriters, but I don’t remember which brand. I’m guessing Royal. My typing skills are ordinary. Believe me I would never win a contest!! But they got me through college, and all of my jobs over the years.
ReplyDeleteDebRo
I was (amazing to me) actually better at shorthand, but I've forgotten almost all of it. I do actually really like typing, however. Probably a good thing:-)
DeleteDebs, I took shorthand the year after I took typing (I had told my parents somewhere around 15 or 16 that I was “through with school “ once I finished high school so my parents thought I needed good secretarial skills. This was the 70s, but my parents were 40 years older than me so they figured that was the only job women could get). To this day I move my fingers as I am watching TV, taking “shorthand” of the characters’ dialogue! When I actually tried to use shorthand in college, I wasn’t all that great at it. But my fingers still remember! (And yes, I did go to a four year college straight out of high school. When I figured out that I was going to have to get a job to support myself if I didn’t, I immediately was on board with getting a college education!) — Pat S
DeleteI don't remember the brand of typewriter that mom had, but she definitely didn't want us playing with it. My twin and I took typing class one year (between 7th and 8th grade?) at the high school we eventually attended. I remember the long rows of typewriters and working hard to be fast enough. I remember the more modern typewriters with white correction ribbons--faster and more portable. I typed my college papers and was so annoyed when I had errors after an all-nighter.
ReplyDeleteWhen I started at 9-1-1, instead of regular typewriter keyboards, we had beautiful red, blue and yellow computer keyboards which were part of a custom-designed computer system by a company called Level II. That keyboard was such a gift to me. I was never great at touch typing numbers, and at 9-1-1, there are a lot of numbers--addresses, phone numbers, police unit numbers, 10-codes, license plates. They are all over the place. The Level II computer provided 10-code function keys, and command keys that allowed us to mostly use the number keypad for the number part of typing. It was fast and easy. When we moved to our new building, with new computers, the system included regular computer keyboards. It was a difficult transition!
Gillian, my husband, who worked as a dispatcher and as a dispatch supervisor, is not a letter touch typist but is on the number pad. I'll have to ask him if he had your Level II system. So interesting.
DeleteMy two darling Smith-Corona portables (first manual, then electric) saw me through my entire youth to my mid-thirties. I wrote many essays and many manuscripts on them.
ReplyDeleteWhen I upgraded to the electric, I kept the manual, so my daughter could use it when she was old enough. Well, of course that never happened, and she was of the first generation whose first year university supplies included a new desktop computer & printer.
Now, those faithful old war horses live in dust-covered cases, side by side, in the basement in a far corner.
Sigh.
You should find a place to display them, Susan! Or sell them if not, as they are quite in demand these days.
DeleteWhat a wonderful post! In 1962 my parents changed apartments and shoved in the back of the closet the prior tenant had left an old-style underwood. The big tall model with the you really gotta push 'em keys. My parents were delighted and my engineer father completely refurbished the thing. At the time, finding ribbons wasn't that much of a problem. I was always fascinated by the dinosaur and often tried it out. The key spread was too big for my hands for me to comfortably use it. When I was in college, my folks gave it to my brother and it resides in VA to this day.
ReplyDeleteMy brother married the daughter of a syndicated columnist. That man was a marvel. I would love to channel his creativity. He always had three typewriters set up, one in the dining room, one in the living room and one in the bar room of their NYC apartment. He would jump from one to the other and type a few lines, even during cocktail parties. By the ten PM deadline when the runners came to the door, he'd written his radio show script, his syndicated column, and his daily piece. I don't know where, or when, he wrote his books, but there were a bunch of those as well. Through it all he kept conversations going, never lost the thread of the party, and turned out nearly flawless work.
Just, wow, Kait. What an amazing guy. I'd like to channel his creativity, too. And I think I probably have the same old Underwood as you, as I said above. A friend gave it to me as a gift years ago, when I imagine you could pick them up for nothing. It's fun as a showpiece but definitely not something you actually want to type on.
DeleteMom typed on an Olympia. I got a Smith Corona for HS graduation. Both manuals. When I was about 7 or 8 my cousin and I corresponded using typewriters, hunt and peck method. Such fun!
ReplyDeleteHaving just learned that Smith-Corona introduced its first electric in '57, the same year my manual portable was made, I'm wondering how long they kept making the manuals. More down the rabbit hole research!
DeleteThis is giving me flashbacks to junior year of high school, Sister Agnes Marie's typing class. I was terrible. Manual typewriters, and small, weak hands. A terrible combination, and I barely passed. The memory of erasing the paper, plus carbons, still gives me the sweats!
ReplyDeleteFast-forward to my first time using a computerized machine. Heaven. I worked for a guy who had this massive contraption that typed one line on a screen. It could be reviewed for errors, and backspaced to fix, then the return key would type it out. He paid something like $3,000 for the thing, and it was basically a glorified typewriter. But it made my pitiful typing so much better. Later, I realized I would know instantly when I hit the wrong key, and the backspace feature got--and still gets--used more than any other.
Margo's point about typewritten missives as diary reminded me of the more than 60 years worth of correspondence we went through when we were clearing out Steve's old office. They kept carbons of every letter and article anyone wrote, including personal letters my father-in-law sent to friends. Back in the day, it cost money to call outside the local community, so he exchanged weekly letters with friends who lived less than ten miles away. I had so much fun reading some of his letters, especially ones to dearly loved family friends--those guys good-naturedly ribbed one another mercilessly.
The carbons later gave way to printed duplicates of emails, then of word processed letters. Now Steve keeps everything electronically, and not in nearly as much organization as the massive filing cabinets had.
At one time we had several old manual typewriters, including the portable Steve took to college in 1967, but I'm not sure where they are now.
Debs, I loved seeing your photos with Kayti! Congratulations on the typewriter score, too. It's a beauty.
DeleteThanks, Karen! More on our trip tomorrow! I love that you have all of Steve's dad corresspondence. I hope that it's saved or archived, not just for the personal stuff but because it's such wonderful social history. And how quickly we forget things like having to pay to call someone in the next town or county!
DeleteI hate to tell you this Debs, but if you ever do a telephone essay - we still have to call long distance (land line) to the next community. Draw a very small triangle - A can call B free, B can call C free, A cannot call C free. Distance in all of those arms - 30 kms!
DeleteApparently with a cell phone most calls are free! (We have a land-line...)
The great thing about cell phones, all calls are free. We talk to in-laws in Italy frequently.
DeleteOh Debs, these are amazing! I remember everything about the typewriter we had when I was little, including the metallic smell. I taught myself to touch type (covered the keys with bits of masking tape so I'd have to remember which was which) with the help of a how-to manual. I'm speedy but accident prone. My mother had one of the first IBM electric typewriters, a gift to her from IBM after a movie that my parents wrote (The Desk Set, which featured an IBM mainframe) came out. It was gi-normous and not portable anywhere.
ReplyDeleteThose IBM Selectrics weighed a TON! And made so much racket, too.
DeleteHow cool, Hallie! That would have been 1957, the same year as my Smith -Corona manual, and pre-Selectric, as the Selectric was introduced in '61. If you want a shock, have a look at the prices for restored Selectrics on eBay. Yikes!!!!!
DeleteI love the look, style and art of the old typewriters. When I was a secretary in the early 1970's they were difficult to use because if you made a mistake (and lordy I sure did...a lot) it was difficult to have to erase it or White Out, and then do all the NCR paper copies, then try to realign it again.
ReplyDeleteOh, such a pain!! We take how easy correcting is now so for granted. If I want to type anything on my Smith-Corona, I had better stock up on White Out. Can you still get White Out, I wonder?
DeleteYes, you can get Wite-Out at Staples and elsewhere. I use it to update my paper calendar so it doesn't get messy with canceled appointments or changes of plan.
DeleteWhat a great find! I think I see file cabinets? That is one thing that is still used today, BUT, I'm glad most of our "filing" papers are now on the computer. I wonder why we still seem to have so much (must keep according to my husband) paper still around.
ReplyDeleteOh we still have paper around too, but not nearly as much.
DeleteWhat memories this bring back, Debs! My mother had a typewriter at home and used it for letters and all kinds of work. Before she became a librarian, she was a journalist, and she insisted I learn to type when I was 12. I was so grateful in college that I could type all my papers ands had a portable (not electric!) But thank God for word-processing! I must have used gallons of Typex to white out mistakes!
ReplyDeleteKim, one of my well worn stories is that my parents sent me to secretarial school before college so that I would have some way to actually support myself if the college degree didn't work out. They turned out to be right, just not in the way they could have predicted.
DeleteI still have my Smith Corona. It is red and the typewriter’s cover slides open to change the ribbon so I think it may be a little later model than the one in the picture, the texture of the case is also smoother.
ReplyDeletePrior to that I had an old office Royal typewriter that my mother’s company was no longer using. That one was probably twice the weight of the portable and impossible for almost anyone to lift.
My mother had suggested that it would be useful for my brother and me to learn how to type and I practiced by using articles in Time magazine to copy.
I typed many school papers on my Smith Corona and I really liked the color.
For a while I also got paid for typing papers for other people.
I still have some rotary Princess phone around.
I drooled over the red model in that first photo (don't remember now what make it was) but it was too expensive. Not a Smith-Corona, though, but so pretty.
DeleteI did take a typing class in high school, but I have no idea what kind of typewriters those were. We had a green(not mint) manual Olivetti at home. I distinctly remember having to type a paper in the basement one time when my grandparents were visiting. For high school graduation (1980) I got sleek electric Olivetti to take to college. It had a white out strip on the ribbon that you could just backspace and type over a mistake. Remember those little wheel shaped erasers with a brush on the end? I might still have that typewriter if it hadn’t gotten wet when our water heater exploded in 2001, but maybe not, as by then you really couldn’t get the ribbons for it and repairs were out of the question.
ReplyDeleteRestoring the typewriters seems to be the thing now, and I'm hoping that you can acturally get the ribbons on Amazon or eBay.
DeleteI had one grandma who always typed her letters and she used carbon paper so there would be a copy for each of her three daughters.
ReplyDeleteOh, messy, messy carbons. Not much nostalgia for those. I always ended up looking like Pigpen.
DeleteI won a portable typewriter in my high school's essay writing contest. My father advised strongly against taking a typing class because he said men in the newsroom ( his workplace and where he thought I'd wind up) would treat me like a secretary. Thirty years of a career that required extensive writing every day and, now, seven books in and I'm still a hunt snd peck, three finger typist. But I love the look of very old typewriters, the kind my grandmother would have used.
ReplyDeleteSusan! What a shame! Although, sadly, your father was probably right, and you've certainly managed well enough. I imagine you've developed your own system over the years and that trying to learn to touch type would scramble your brain. (Or at least it would mine.)
DeleteAt Uni, the computer was still relatively new and too expensive for some of us. Luckily, there was a typewriter store across the street from Uni and I bought an antique typewriter for 25? dollars or was it 50? It was big and clunky. It was heavy to carry. However I used the typewriter to type my college papers.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of rotary landline phones, I remember using the teletypewriter, which looked like the big codebreaker from the Second World War, with a landline phone and modem. This was what Deaf people used to make phone calls. And it worked only if the other person also had a teletypewriter machine. If not, then you had to use a "Relay" service (a text to voice service) and the other person often thought it was the telemarketer because of the Relay Operator's voice.
This is a bit of Deaf History, since April is Deaf History Month.
This is a long comment here. How the typewriter topic transported into a comment about the rotary phone.
Diana
So interesting about the teletypewriter, Diana. I didn't know about those.
DeletePast the age of 5, my memories include my dad’s portable manual Royal. I say portable only because it came in a case with a handle. It was big and heavy. I wasn’t allowed to play with it. I smile when I see parents today handing their thousand-dollar smart phones to their children in church to keep them mollified during an otherwise quiet time.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was about nine or ten, the World’s Fair came to Queens, NYC. IBM had a pavilion which I always wanted to visit every time we ventured to the exhibits. Each of their booths fascinated me, but trying out their new Selectrics perhaps engaged me the most. I couldn’t stop talking about them. So, my father rashly promised me, that if I got straight A’s in my senior year of high school, he would get me one. They retailed for about $1,000 in those days. It didn’t matter much as my grades tanked in my last year of high school and I think my father had long since forgotten his promise.
I flunked out of college after a year. However, I don’t recall typing anything much less schoolwork and papers. I tried college again about 10 years later and by that time the school provided access to computers which we used for elementary word processing where the keyboards were attached to mainframes and our papers were printed for us on sprocket paper.
Between those two tries at college, I learned to touch type, not on a typewriter, but on a series of teletype machines. I had joined a political organization, somewhere to the right or the left of the lunatic fringe and they were always sending documents over the wires to a far-flung network of partisans. First it was Telex machines, followed by Twx. I’m not sure if Twx is a brand name or not. However, the big difference was that these machines would cut holes in strips of paper tape which were then read by the same machine to send the documents to remote locations with the ticker tape produced which could be re-sent several times. Telex machines cut 5 holes across a tape of about half an inch. The later Twx machines cut 8 holes across which could accommodate a wider range of characters like both upper and lower case.
The documents we sent were long and I became a proficient touch typist. I used my skill at the keyboard, to get a job on Wall Street. The company I started with used Telex machines primarily as data entry machines. I did have to take a typing test. I think I typed 50 words a minute, after deducting points for errors. After a year at that job, I sent my resume to the U.N. who was looking for a teletypist. They hired someone else, but in about 3 months they got back to me and offered me a job, without a second interview.
ReplyDeleteThey were going to lay me off after about a year, but they offered me a job down in the third basement in their Office Machine Repair Unit. Suddenly, I was surrounded by typewriters. I had a refurbished Selectric at my desk to use in my work and I was in my glory.
I was a clerk who kept records of work done and to be done. There were about 10 mechanics who repaired mostly typewriters. Every morning at about 9 am, they would crack the tax-stamps on a deck of playing cards and a bottle of Scotch and settle in for the day. My job was handling the phone and explain to the various and sundry secretaries throughout the Secretariat and other buildings why their machines might not be fixed as soon as they would like. “Oh, I have two men on annual leave. I have one right now in the Security Council and two in the GA. But as soon as possible, someone will be up to check on your machine.” People used to ask what I did at the U.N. I would invariably answer, “International diplomacy.”
That year, Xerox introduced to the market a stand-alone word processor, called the Vydec. They wanted $10,000 for it. I found their 800 number and as the Administrative Assistant at the U.N.’s Office Machine Repair Unit, I called and asked them to send me the user’s manual to the machine. I don’t remember receiving it. I do remember that when I left to take a job as a typesetter, that one of the tech’s gave me a gift of an IBM Model D electric. It wasn’t portable, but somehow, I got it home and it remained with me for at least a decade.
Fascinating stories, David!
DeleteI took typing in high school. But, I really learned to type quickly when I was in my very early 20's and I told the employer during my interview for the job of typist that I could type 25 wpm. I was hired but the lovely seasoned secretary knew right away I wasn't typing anywhere near that fast. She took me under her wing and helped me settle in and eventually I became faster over time. At one time I taught keyboarding on computers in middle school. I type now at about 75+ wpm.
ReplyDeleteGosh, I have no idea what I type now. I remember in secretarial school we were supposed to get up to 120 wpm, I think, which was a real struggle for me. What ever my speed now, I'm very error-prone.
DeleteI love typing! I wish I had my old used Smith Corona now - I’d use it in my art projects! I learned to type in high school and loved the feel of the keyboard beneath my fingers. When I found myself a very young single mom of two, I parlayed that skill into a job as a receptionist/typist to support us. Even now, decades later, I still love the feel of using keys so much that I use a keyboard with my iPad. And l’m still pretty darn fast!
ReplyDeleteI love the feel of the Thinkpad keyboard. I am addicted to it. When I plug my laptop into my dock and a big monitor, I use an auxillary Thinkpad keyboard, too. We like what we like!
DeleteThis is Gigi. When I was in high school, and all the girls were required to take "practical arts" classes, I snubbed typing and shorthand because it was the second wave of women's liberation, and I wasn't going to be a secretary. Which was all fine and high-minded until I landed a job as a reporter and needed to take notes very quickly and accurately, then type them up into stories.
ReplyDeleteI got a Smith-Corona portable electric when I went to college--the kind you slapped a ribbon cartridge into when you wanted to type, then ejected it for a correction cartridge when you wanted to fix something. I was mostly hunt-and-peck at first, but I turned out presentable term papers. Then, after I graduated, I met this handsome Texan to whom I would write long love letters several times a week. He finally fessed up and told me, "Honey, I love you, but I can't read your handwriting. Could you please type your letters?"
Not nearly as romantic, but it taught me how to compose on a typewriter. And how did I learn to actually type? Well . . . My mother taught at the same high school were I snubbed the typing classes, and they happened to be replacing all those old typing manuals I had sneered at. So she brought one home, and . . . Yeah. I used it to learn how to type.
Gigi, what happened with the handsome Texan? :-)
DeleteGoing down my research rabbit hole this morning, i discovered that Smith-Corona invented the replaceable ribbon cartridge. They were quite the innovators.
DeleteI took several levels of Typing classes in high school and used those skills in several jobs after graduating from college before I became a full-time mom. I remember being really happy with the IBM Selectric but now I can’t tell you exactly what those upgrades were; I think one involved identifying typos and having the ability to go back to delete them. Now my grandkids call typing “keyboarding” and they’re all very proficient—no hunt and peck for them!~Emily Dame
ReplyDeleteYes, the Selectric had the correcting ribbon ball, and different fonts!!!
DeleteMy mom had an old typewriter that she used to write letters to my grandmother weekly. I started asking if I could type on it when I was in 6th or 7th grade. When I was a junior in high school I took typing and learned proper finger placement. Over the years I used various types of typewriters, but was happiest with the IBM Selectric. Eventually I transitioned to computers and was forever grateful for my high school typing class!
ReplyDeleteAbout six months ago, in an effort to clear out a storage unit, we gave away the electric typewriters both my husband and I had used in college. We didn’t mind getting rid of those, but the IBM Selectric II that my husband had acquired when his company closed offices was difficult to part with. I gave all three to a computer teacher at a local elementary school. She wanted them to be able to show the kids what a typewriter looked like and let the kids try them out. Loved that idea! — Pat S
Oh my gosh, Pat, I just looked up restored Selectrics on eBay. Yikes! You made generous donation! But very educational for the kids.
DeleteOh no, really? Oh well, I guess it was for the kids…. (Please excuse the sobbing sound you hear) Pat
DeleteMy typing teacher was adamant that we shouldn't look at the keyboard or our papers. Now, with auto(in)correct, I watch the words on the screen to make sure they are as intended. I took personal typing at Ritenour H.S. the summer before 9th grade, the earliest I was allowed to (still at the jr. high for another year), and my parents bought a portable typewriter for me . . . Dad argued it would be good for all the papers I'd be writing. The skill also came in handy to help pay for college, and for work when there were no teaching positions. I "got my money's worth" from those lessons. ;-)
ReplyDeleteMy parents bought me a Smith-Corona Corsair portable typewriter for Christmas when I was twelve. The BEST birthday present ever! I later gained typing certificates, and wrote my first novel on the machine.
ReplyDeleteI learned to type in high school - on a manual like the Smith Corona like the one on the second row from the left, second one down, but it wasn't a portable. It was a monster, and typing was the only subject I didn't do well in. I'm pretty good on my personal computer now, but it was several years before I evolved into this.
ReplyDeleteJust a point of recent history: Actor Tom Hanks is wild for typewriters, and he recently gave a 1934 Underwood from his collection to a Lacey typewriter repairman. Now, here is my story. While in high school, I was in the college program. Yet, I knew that I'd need to type a ton of papers in college. So, I asked to take an elective in typing. I was refused as I was not in the business program. I challenged the decision makers and was finally allowed to take a typing course. It certainly made my life a lot easier as I churned out those papers on my green manual typewriter in a case which I still have in my home office: a Hermes 3000 made in Switzerland!
ReplyDeleteSo cool! And I'm glad you were so determined!
DeleteI took a summer school typing class between 8th and 9th grades. Fortunately the grade didn’t apply to my high school GPA! We used big, heavy manual typewriters, but there were no letters or numbers or symbols on the keys!
ReplyDeleteMy mother was a secretary and when IBM Selectrics were brought into her office, a technician from IBM had to come and adjust her machine because she typed too fast and therefore it kept jamming!
SO late..but this is GREAT! I have a selectric in the basement. Ahh..when I took typoing, I was so impatient that I couldn't learn it--so I just would look at the paragraph we were supposed to type, memorize it, and then type it looking at the keys. I was really good at it, but I am so remorseful now about it now--I really wish I could type. I am really fast..but there are SO many mistakes.
ReplyDeleteI try to think of it as editing. SO fabulous, Debs!
My father taught typing and other business courses in a high school--not the one I went to, in fact in another state. One summer he was teaching remedial arithmetic and personal typing. I went with him and was a very unofficial teacher's aide in the former and a mediocre student in the latter. I think it was between 7th and 8th grades for me, between 8th and 9th at the very latest. So I learned on whatever kind of non-portable manual typewriter was in the classroom. I had a portable Smith-Corona manual from high school through grad school.
ReplyDeleteOooh, I love it, Debs!!!! I’ve always wanted a vintage typewriter. So jealous!
ReplyDeleteLove this post! I want to get a typewriter. I recall my dad had one at work and we had an electric type at home.
ReplyDeleteYou and Tom Hanks! He’s a collector….did a very interesting documentary about typewriters…where and how he finds them, what he likes about each model/brand…worth tracking down…maybe YouTube?
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