Remember Your First TYPEWRITER?

Hiya cobalt!

My Mom gave me her old typewriter ~ one of the first electric ones ~ can't even remember the name of it.

In typing class in seventh grade we had manual IBM typewriters. When I got to high school, we had the IBM Selectrics. I excelled in that class ~ my top record being 112 wpm. That feat allowed me the opportunity to basically skip typing class and spend the rest of the year on one of the first 'word processors', also an IBM. A now defunct local community college actually sought me out for enrollment because of my typing speed. I enrolled for one semester, got the basics in the 'new' computer world.....and here I am!

That was 19 years ago.....I recently tested my typing speed, and I've dropped to 80 correct wpm. Still pretty fast, but not much calling for that type of talent anymore.

Very cool, Rae! I remember the IBM Selectrics were sooooooooo wonderous at one point in time! I got a Smith-Corona Electronic or somesuch clone that - get this - corrected back 12 characters!!!! And, I could program in about 60 characters as a really basic and hard-to-use word processor. I had "daisy wheels" of different typefaces and could use 12 - 10 and 15 ( I think - can't remember this part) point type.Paid $500 for this marvel!And I could not even give it away until about 3 years ago when a young religious home schooling mother showed up at a garage sale I had.

I am very impressed by your skill! I imagine that I am most likely around 80 wpm now but who cares about accuracy, lol! There is always that moment to proofread or use a spell check program IF one 'cares', ha ha!

First typewriter was a small portable that I picked up at a rummage sale. Was a pretty neat toy, but wasn't good for much typing.

Was given an electric (Sears) for 8th grade graduation. Somthing to take with me for prep school.

Can certainly tell who learned how to type and who didn't in my office. CAN YOU SAY CAPS LOCK?

My first (and current) the good old Smith Corona manual portable. Sometimes hard to get replacement ribbons, especially two color. How many of today's models will still be functioning in sixty-five years?

My parents got me a little Brother portable when I was in Grade 6. I loved that thing - i still think it had the nicest touch of any keyboard i've ever had. I used that baby through university. On graduation my parents got me a Smith Corona electric - not really sure about the timing on that (sorry hamburger). I sold the Smith Corona a few years (ok, maybe a decade) later and bought one of Brother's first laptop word processors. Once again, a nice keyboard. I've still got it around - it's nice to take out into the garden to write with sometimes.

Interesting about the typing speeds. When I worked for an agency that offered vocational training to people, we discovered that people who moved from typewriter to keyboard had a significant drop in speed - it had something to do with the different correction modes - i know there were studies on it at the time as the expectation was that people should be able to type faster on a word processor, but they almost consistently dropped in speed.

EhBeth, you bring up an interesting point about the facility that comes and goes with keyboard. I find there are huge differences in folks'ability to type with a keyboard. Those that seem to have the most reluctance with the keyboard often are the same who did not use typewriters BUT, I see that many beginners taking classes in computer skills are confounded merely by the large array of keys. They also are astonished by the options provided with a myriad of keystroke combinations way beyond shift +letter =Capital letter.

Sometimes the speed of what results is of concern. Other times, is just plain fear over a mis-typed key and terror over doing something "wrong". No familiar "white out" in their minds, lol! I don't remember folks having a similar fear with typewriters. There were folks that dreaded typing because they were s o v e r y s l o w and did not want others to know. Some folks adapted quickly to the notition of thinking while typing and you will see others still handwrite notes first. And those that save to draft and return over and over until it is 'right'.I myself notice that those who use console games and handheld electronic games seem quite at ease with the arrow pad. Financial adepts seem at home on the numberical keypad. In the meantime, I hang out around qwerty in comfort.

My brother is proud of saying his youngest daughter will never have to learn keyboard typing. She uses Voice Recognition software at age 5, on her own full computer system.

Today I was working in a position where I score first grader's essays. Serious! And I was interested to see that about 1/3 of them mentioned either having computers or console games in their stories. This makes me wonder what it is that is a BIG gift they will get that makes a difference in their lives. Whereas "we" remember the special occasion and the ceremonial gift that helped us transition to the next step in schooling, what for children today and in the future?

When the first graders have computers in their home, perhaps there is a loss of the "special" gift as we oldies had experienced? The means to let your imagination fly and go forth - that's what my typewriter meant to me. I wonder about the children now. My brain's still wired "the old way" although I think I've got some nice mech circuitry trying to mesh in there with the old neurotransmitters. LOL!

Jeez.....go to work for a few hours and look what happens!

The recent typing test I took was on an electric typewriter ~ I even asked the test-giver about the oddity of it in todays times. She said that they get better accuracy on plain old typewriters where as on a keyboard, you might be compelled to backspace for boo-boos.

I have ten-key touch as well and because I work with Excel a lot, I've gotten used to the keyboard as opposed to a calculator. My calculator at work is battery operated and basically a pain in the tushy. I'd much rather open a blank Excel file to do my calculations.

Rae - looks like there is a commonality between your best/worst gift thread and this one. But, I notice that so far in that thread, no one has mentioned their typewriter as their best gift, lol!

typewriter? it's the longest word on a typewriter than you can spell with the top row only (q,w,e,r,t,y,u,i,o,p)

cobalt))))

I took an elective course in high school for "touch typing." This course may have been my most useful in high school because I am typing this post using the "touch" system.

Typewriters back then were not electric. You had to punch those keys all the way down and hear them click. Most models seemed to be made by Royal and Westinghouse.

A Miss Fuller taught the class with a good deal of spunk. When we did "speed drills," I remember, Miss Fuller would often catch a student with his/her hands perched on the keys before the "oven timer" would start ticking down the drill's eternity. For this ghastly misbehavior, Miss Fuller would take one of those old wooden rulers and smack the knuckles of the offender.

As I recall, Miss Fuller resembled Mrs. Frankenstein. She was a terror, but her teaching -- in my case, at least -- has withstood the test of many decades.

Small, blue-gray manual my dad bought for me in a yard sale. My mum gave me some onion skin paper and I wrote my first story on it, at the mini table and chairs my aunt & uncle gave me in the den. Must have been about 8 or 9--Used it until it ran out of ribbon, then moved on to my mom's old portable.

I took typing one summer in Chicago with a lady name Ms. Howe.
I took the course, even though I didn't own a typewriter and I got an A.

I have a portable typewriter and an IBM selectric typewriter. Used for emergency....

I believe that this course was perhaps the only really "useful" one I ever took in High School or even College.

williamhenry, Me too! I made a pretty good living off of my typing skills after high school. Worked as a biller at McClurg and Company in Chicago, and worked as a teletype biller for trucking companies (as a Teamster) when I attended college. It was a 'life-saver' for me. c.i.

edithdoll<

I have become so ancient that I have to reminded of some things, e.g., onion-skin paper. Thanks for your post.

Carbon copies?

You don't know about carbon copies? Oh god, I'm old. Before xeroxes, in order to make copies of a document you had to sandwich a sheet of carbon paper between two sheets of regular typing paper; BEFORE you started typing the original. The carbon paper had one side (facing the bottom sheet) which was coated with an inky substance that would come off and make a second copy at the same time as you typed the top copy. You could do several carbon copies at once, but it required more layers of carbon paper & typing paper. They got dimmer and dimmer the more layers of carbon paper you used. More than three or four copies at a time was impossible. So to get 10 copies of something, you probably had to type the same page 3 or 4 times. Ancient history. Slightly better than using monks.