Whatever happened to your typewriter?

Goodwill.

Mine was a h.s. graduation gift, in 1989. It was pretty much last-generation, before PCs took over completely. It had lots of bells and whistles and I loved it actually. I was a crammer in college -- I'd write papers overnight, hand it in, and crash -- and E.G. hated it passionately. He'd have dreams about machine-gun fire.

I'd write in the computer lab when I had a chance but there were always horrible lines. Borrowed a friend's computer in grad school. Finally got a monitor somewhere around there, and would print in E.G.'s office.

Last one I used was an IBM Wheelwriter. What a cream puff. They would still be handy for filling in forms, but who can justify the cost?

I sold it .

My mother gave it to me when I was 8. It was hers in college and I believe she bought it second hand. Just a plain ole smith corona ( coronNa? )

I loved the little portable Brother manual typewriter the hamburgers bought me in about 1969. I made it through university with that thing.

They traded the manual in toward an electric typewriter for me after I graduated from university (I never really understood that part - I really didn't need one anymore). I never got along well with the electric typewriter. It was too clunky after the very lightweight portable. I think that one may still be in a cupboard at their house.

In about 1998 I bought another Brother. It was a cross between a portable word processor and a laptop p.c. I quite liked it, but connecting it to the internet was a real bother, and the portable printer I had then wasn't brilliant.

ahhhh

it was a

Brother Super Powernote Laptop



It was a lot of fun to use. Really nice touch to the keyboard. It's still in the living room, under a table or something

~~~

I like going to Tim Potter auctions. He advertises manual typewriters as anchors.

I'd had my father's old typewriter from the time I was 10 until he bought me the new one. I learned to type on it. I think it was a ROYAL.

In the middle of the agony of re-typing pages for a series of stories I was writing for the Texas School System, a friend of mine showed me her, what did she call it?, word processor. She showed me how, if you wanted to move a paragraph from here to there, you could.

And it had a word counter. ( I was paid by the word, don't ask.)

I had about two hundred dollars to my name.
I would make about a thousand dollars if I got the work done on time.
We could eat AFTER I get the check.

I went down to either JC Penney's or Otasco and bought a Brother Model something or other for $189.00 plus tax.

I never used that typewriter, my sweet loyal, hardworking, never failed me once, typewriter again.

I have this horrible feeling that it got left on a curb somewhere.

Joe(poor little blue lug, I feel so ashamed.)Nation

geez...that's kinda sad, Joe. And it never failed you once?

I remember my mother's Underwood, as that's what I learned to type on.

I don't remember my own Smith Corona or my own Brother manual typewriter very well. Think I gave them to the Salvation Army. I kept the old Underwood for years, but finally gave it away at some point.
Do remember my work typewriters, specifically the Selectric II, upon which I could type with the speed of light if I didn't stop and think.

My first computer was my husband's Sanyo pc which required much perusal of a great big book that went with it to understand Word Star... when he got a laptop. Second was a school type Mac from the Bargain Box... I remember being afraid I might break it by pushing the wrong button.

My typewriter is in on a shelf in the closet. An electric model with self-correction tape. High tech for its day.

The silence in offices these days is kinda startling (on the rare occasions when I'm in an office). No clickety-clacking--a sound of productivity.

Never failed me?

Nope, not even after I dragged it in the snow across a golf course one winter's afternoon, trying to get to a portion of the Mass Turnpike where I could hitch a ride without the State Highway Patrol hassling me and my "Hartford, CT" sign.

The keys were big enough that I never hit two at the same time. It never jammed up, never locked up the ribbon, never had a key that refused to punch it's little symbol (Upper or lower) onto the waiting paper. I did buy a hunk of rubbery stuff to clean out the O's and the D's because they had begun to look more like big black dots on the paper, but I never had it cleaned professionally. I may have put a drop of oil down in the center section once or twice, but that was it.

Full disclosure:

Last night, in the midst of a brilliant retort to someone on these threads, my big, powerful, fancy, multi-function computer seized up and froze, Internet Explorer stopped responding and my words, which should have been preserved for the ages, were lost. Somewhere back in the recesses of my brain a voice said "Your blue typewriter never did that to you."

Joe(I suddenly missed that machine in the same way I find sometimes find myself missing some long ago, near forgotten, lover.)Nation

My father gave me a Smith-Corona electric portable before I went off to college. A great machine; you could dial up the key-strike pressure and make a couple of decent carbon copies. Also, it was compact and didn't weigh much. About 15 years after college, I sold the machine to a former student of mine for a song (she wanted to be a writer, and I was very sympathetic to this goal). I miss it occasionally, but I think I'm missing its mechanical nature, rather than its abilities, because a computer is much, much easier to use. I confess to occasional drooling over Olivetti's Lettera, a super-slim, high-quality portable manual typewriter that is still made, but I can't justify buying one. It goes well with the fantasy of sitting at a sidewalk table in a small Umbrian village, tapping out a fresh poem for my hungry publisher!

I had an IBM selectric which is on a high shelf in a closet upstairs with it's little cover on top. I learned to type in Miss Perpetua's typing class (no joke on the name)

It's at a friend's house, with supply of ribbons and correction tape, and several print wheels (Courier 10, Courier 12, Courier Italic 10 & 12, Symbol, Annuciator, etc.). I doubt if he uses it either.

My last one looked like this.



Olympia typewriters were much better than other brands, IMHO.
Olivetti sucked big time.
My dad had an old Underwood, too old fashioned for my taste.


Magic moments: when you ran out of inspiration, grabbed a pin and started to clean the keys.

Dire moments: when the black part of the ribbon was exhausted and you had to use the red one (later I bought only black ribbons).

Crucial moments: typing over a stencil sheet, doing it carefully since there was practically no way to mend a mistake.


... Did anyone here ever one a mimeograph?

They made correction fluid for stencils, and i've used it, but it really sucks. With mimeos, you just take a razor blade and scrape the error off the page, then cut off one corner of the facing sheet and retype in that area of the mimeo.

Fbaezer

Yes, the Olympias were TANKS. Went forever. My mother, who was a professional journalist, used one at home. She typed so rapidly that the sensation was "wall of sound," and the machine never jammed.

I think you underrate the Olivetti Lettera. I never used the large Olivettis, so they may, indeed, be the pits. But the Letteras I've used were really good.

haven't the foggiest... nor do i remember the brand.
i believe it is somewhere on the island of manhattan.

received it sophomore or junior year of high school ('81 or '82).
gave it quite the workout...


R(i'm only 42)P

The Olympians being tanks is perhaps why I liked them so much. The Olivetti Lettera was swift, but lacked stability. The larger Olivettis were heavy and, at the same time, delicate; they broke in a jiffy.

---

Set, I do remember correcting liquid for stencils, it was a DRAG.
The other trick is new to me, but sounds like a drag too. We weren't THAT kind of perfectionists.
(Ah, the years of the underground papers!!!)