10.24.2012
My sister Carol has a friend who collects manual typewriters. I read his blog this morning , which led me to start thinking about Typing and how EVERYONE knows how to type now...little kids are learning as soon as they can get to the computer keyboard.
The above is a picture I just found on the internet - an old Royal Quiet Deluxe Portable Typewriter. My Mom had one just like it, and when I was a kid, I'd drag it out and have fun pounding the keys. It came in its own hard case that had little metal clasps to affix the typewriter safely in place.
Typing FAST and of course, without errors, used to be a highly prized skill. Is it still? I just took an online test and my score was 104 words per minute, without errors. Not so bad. But I notice it only used the normal punctuation, nothing on that top line, nor did it use numbers. There's another test listed, with words AND numbers. I'm not even going to bother taking it...my score would be a Hunt and Peck score.
I learned how to type correctly in high school as part of my series of Business Classes. I also took two years of Gregg Shorthand, some of which I still remember and could actually use, if the occasion arose. (Whether I could read it back two hours later is another matter.) And yes, I also took a class that taught me how to create the Punched Cards that were used to store the data and programs of the earliest computers.
Lincoln Way High School had a nice typing lab, 2nd floor, front of the building, complete with a full set of windows that overlooked the Lincoln Highway and the cornfields beyond. I learned on an electric typewriter, which was so much easier to use than the Royal. We had timed tests nearly every day which I always did well on. Once during gym, I jammed the 3 middle fingers of my right hand playing basketball. I remember that I still had to take those timed tests despite having those fingers all taped together. :)
A few weeks ago, there was a story about Typewriters http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7397608n on the CBS show Sunday Morning . Evidently more and more people are discovering the JOY of pounding out words on a Typewriter, whether it be manual or electric. I watched that show and I wished again (as I have sooo many times in the past 20 years) that I still had that old Royal Typewriter of Mom's.
I took the Royal to college and typed every paper I wrote on it...and as a Library Science Major/English minor, I wrote lots of papers. I still have a few of those papers, and each time I unearth the box they're stored in, I read them. Looking at the characters typed on the paper is almost as fun as reading the words.
Some of the typed characters are DARK (early in the term, new ribbon) some are light (end of the term, old ribbon.) Some have NO typing mistakes at all (very careful retype); some have a few mistakes, crossed out with handwritten corrections. Any typed q, z, or x would be faint (I'm right handed, so wimpy left hand) but any Capital Q, Z or X would be VERY DARK because with the Royal, I'd hold the shift key down with my left fingers and use my right to smack the letter down hard. :) I just did that while typing this, and it felt VERY natural.
I remember typing my paper on Leon Uris, sitting cross-legged on my bed, my notes spread all over, and the Royal in front of me, resting on the closed case. Probably not the best form.
Clickety clickety clickety , the Clunk of pushing the shift key down and a forceful bam for a Capital, clickety clickety clickety, RETURN! Man oh Man, that sentence? Work of ART! It had to be because of all the physical and mental effort that went into it!
I gave that Royal back to Mom when we moved from S. California to Florida. I'd bought a Brother's electric typewriter to type up job applications and resumes and we didn't need two. I asked her about it a few years ago - she'd donated it to Goodwill at some point. It was long gone. I wish I had it.
