Jinksy's typewriter post made me all nostalgic. I learned to type on a bangy-bangy old typewriter when I trained to be a medical secretary in the late 1970s, and in our classroom were two brand-new up-to-the-minute wondrous machines called (awed intake of breath) 'electronic typewriters'. We secretarial students were on a rota to use them in lessons as there were only the two and it was seen as a special treat. If you were naughty in lessons (as in, you brushed your hair before the bell went), you could forget your treat and you were kept on the old machines.
Now, I yearn for the days when just about the only thing that could go wrong with your typewriter was that the ribbon needed changing, and it was something we were all taught to do. And my typewriter never hated me in the way my computer seems to even though I bashed hell out of it ....
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This is truly odd in its own way. Last night I was telling Joe how my old Royal would stick if I hit two keys too quickly. Then we'd have to pry the little heads apart. And the messy fingers from those ribbons!! And then the "new" addition of double color ribbon! Black on the bottom and red on the top! By crackies I thought it was fantastic! Oh! And the carbon sheets? One mistake and you had to start all over.
ReplyDeleteThanks for joining my brain in it's foggy trip down memory lane. Too bad I can't remember what I had for breakfast.
Ooooh--I am with YOU! I bought myself a little manual typewriter with my allowance in the 1970s and took it to college with me. It still works!!
ReplyDeleteOh , an English college in the Swinging '60s ! Where girls wearing trousers would be sent home to change into something more suitable .
ReplyDeleteS&S, The bank manager tried to have me fired in 1973 because, contrary to the new regulations allowing women to wear trousers, my top did not match my bottom.
ReplyDeleteIn fact it still doesn't.
Sorry Fran I have no typewriter stories to share, but just yesterday I started to think about Pitman shorthand, which I never learned but was fascinated by when my mother did.
Bashing hell out of those manual typewriters is what I did too. I hated them and couldn't wait to get an electric one.
ReplyDeleteAnd when they came with a little window to show you your mistakes before the keys actually hit the paper, bliss!
I love my computer, I never have to use Tipp-ex.
Ah, Friko. I'm glad you said that. I've had a helluva job rubbing the white blobs off my screen.
ReplyDeleteAh yes, the good old days. I remember them well. I nearly lost my pinkie to one of those manual typewriters. It repeatedly got stuck between the O and the P. Or the P and the -. I forgot. Still feel the pain though ;-)
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