Typewriter tales

I heard an interesting story on NPR this morning, all about typewriters.

The NPR story includes an interview with Ish Arora, a 16-year-old whose parents gave her a typewriter for her last birthday. According to the story:

Ish, a high school sophomore, does all her homework on a laptop but writes poetry on her Remington. She's also used it to write letters to her friends. "They were ecstatic to actually receive a letter in the mail from a typewriter."

How interesting to hear about a 16-year-old who's not only using a typewriter, but who is writing letters!

From a writer's point of view, anything about writing is interesting, including typewriters.

When I was in high school, I used to type my research papers on my mom's old manual typewriter. Of course, I was usually working on the paper really late the night before it was due, so often, I would hand-write what I wanted to say, and my mom would type it for me. She was a faster typer than I was, and back then, I couldn't "write" at the keyboard. I had to write it in long-hand first. I remember several late nights with the two of us at the typewriter, me scribbling out my work and her typing it up for me. She's a great mom, isn't she!

When I went off to college, my parents gave me my very own electric typewriter. It was a fancy model with built-in correction tape...no need for little bottles of correction fluid.

Now, I will say that computers existed at that time. In fact, my last semester of high school, I took a "computer math" course so that I could learn how to use a computer. I was planning on working for the Texas Tech University student newspaper, and I knew they used computers there. But, very few other students had access to computers, and not very many teachers would accept papers done on the computer, mostly because of the poor quality of the print-outs.

So, I used that typewrite a lot, especially for resumés and cover letters. I'm sure I got my first professional job with a resumé typed on that typewriter.

I still have it somewhere. I also have two or three antique, manual typewriters, including one that belonged to my late aunt, Gladys McKeown. Maybe I should get them in working order...maybe I'll write a letter or two on them...