Anyone still use typewriters?

[Watchdog]

I had a Royal portable typewriter that my dad gave me when I was in junior high. It came in a heavy hard case...actually didn't even have to take the typewriter out of the case to use it, although I usually did.

I used that typewriter from the 9th grade all the way through my senior year, then on into college. It somehow got left behind on a move in the early eighties, and it was gone forever.

I was still using a typewriter at work in the early nineties to create forms and charts and do official correspondence. Got dragged kicking and screaming into the computer age...they sat me down in front of a computer and said, "Learn how to use this." I kept sneaking back to my typewriter...the boss caught me and made the typewriter disappear...dooming me to geekdom forever.

 

[soFlaNative]

Can you still buy white-out?

Yes they do, I bought some just a few weeks ago.

Can you still buy typewriter ribbon?

 

[PJO1425]

You should be able to buy ribbons on Ebay, possibly Amazon and possibly office supply stores.

 

[Onomea]

In high school my dad said to me, "Take a typing class. It will be useful." I said, "Nah. I am gonna have a secretary to type for me."

I am a pretty good two-finger typist. Wish I had listened to my dad, though. I had secretaries during my career, but once computers showed up I pretty much always typed my own stuff.

In grad school I bought, used, one of those IBM Selectrics. I used to get the kind of paper that was made extra tough so you could use the eraser pencil, the kind with a brush on the end, and just erase your mistakes.

Man, that Selectric was one heavy sonovagun.

Along about 1980 or so, I was transitioning to a "word processor," an IBM box of some sort, DOS, that my department let me use. I suddenly lost several days worth of typing my master's thesis. Poof! Man I was seriously unhappy. Couldn't believe it. Had to stay up all night to catch up.

The early days of what we called "personal computers" were like that. For no reason at all, if you forgot to "save" your work every paragraph or so — poof! — it could, and did, dissapear forever. At least with a typewriter you always had hard copy...

Then there was carbon copy paper. Remember those?

 

[Targets Guy]

Can you still buy white-out? Every place I worked back when typewriters were used prohibited use of white-out (correction fluid). If the typist made a mistake, it had to be re-typed.

Yep. Got a bottle sitting next to my Smith-Corona electric right now.

gif uploadcertificity.com

 

[DWalt]

"In high school my dad said to me, "Take a typing class. It will be useful.""

About 40 years ago I had a great boss who attributed knowing how to type with saving his life. He was drafted into the Army during the Korean War, and was about ready to be shipped out. The request came down for someone who knew how to type, and my boss stepped forward, as he had taken typing in high school. So he spent the rest of the war behind a typewriter in an office instead of being behind an M1 in the snow.

 

[nodpete]

I don't use it but I have one just like the one that "Jessica" used on Murder She Wrote. It even has a red/black ribbon in it.

 

[rwsmith]

Ingenious....

No jam ups. You want to change the font, you just change the ball head.

 

[Targets Guy]

"In high school my dad said to me, "Take a typing class. It will be useful.""

About 40 years ago I had a great boss who attributed knowing how to type with saving his life. He was drafted into the Army during the Korean War, and was about ready to be shipped out. The request came down for someone who knew how to type, and my boss stepped forward, as he had taken typing in high school. So he spent the rest of the war behind a typewriter in an office instead of being behind an M1 in the snow.

It was the best class I ever took in high school. I was the only boy in a class of 20 or so AND I have used the skill learned ever since (the typing skill).

 

[glenwolde]

There's also something satisfying about typing on a typewriter. It makes you think about what you are about to say, slows you down and makes you careful to phrase things in a way that is right the first time.

Well, so do quill pens. I use neither.

 

[Muss Muggins]

It was the best class I ever took in high school. I was the only boy in a class of 20 or so AND I have used the skill learned ever since (the typing skill).

Couldn't agree more (they call it "keyboarding" now) . . .

 

[THE PILGRIM]

No typewriter-
But I still have my sliderule.

 

[steveno]

I still have my yellow Picket slide rules. If I can just remember how to use them

 

[chaparrito]

A bit of typewriter trivia. Liquid Paper; the original "white-out" was invented by musician and former Monkee Mike Nesmith's mother. She never planned for it to be a big success and ended up making a fortune.

 

[Marshwheeling]

I had an IBM Selectric in my law office from 1978 to around 1995. My secretary used it more than I did. I didn't, and still don't type too well so the self-correcting feature was real helpful. Around 1990 I got a PC with a word processor, and phased the typewriter out. It got too expensive to repair so I just quit using it. Don't know where it is.

I still have an Olivetti portable, early 60s vintage, that I drag out for special occasions, like when I want to type a ransom note and give the coppers a fair chance at tracing it; it has a lot of distinctive characteristics.

 

[Nevada Ed]

Question;

How many of you have rewound the red/black ink spool, for a second go round?

How many have used all the space on the small white square of paper for "Erasing" an error?

I don't see no stinking "White out" !!

 

[nodpete]

It was the best class I ever took in high school. I was the only boy in a class of 20 or so AND I have used the skill learned ever since (the typing skill).

I can relate to that. Our class was only 10 and just 3 girls. The typing teacher said she wouldn't just teach 3 so the girls asked us boys to take typing so they could learn it. And like you, I've used that skill my whole life.

 

[PALADIN85020]

It was the best class I ever took in high school. I was the only boy in a class of 20 or so AND I have used the skill learned ever since (the typing skill).

I also took a typing class in my Sophomore year in high school. I did get to over 60 wpm, which was the gold standard at that time. Besides getting to meet some interesting girls, that experience served me well in college when writing term papers, etc. I still type by motor memory on the computer - no need to look at the keyboard. Probably the most practical and useful course I took in high school.

John

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

you can still buy them new. A brother daisy wheel costs $149 at Office Depot and I use one in the office to address envelopes and fill out the file cards. Ain't the best but if it breaks just throw it away and buy a new one. Have had this one for around 10 years or so so I've gotten my money's worth out of it.

 

[crazyphil]

I enlisted at age 17. USAF gives you 3 "career" choices. I chose aerial
gunnery 1st, radio operator 2nd, (I wanted to fly) but couldn't find an
attractive choice for third.

The Sgt. conducting the interview asked did you take typing in high school.
Yes I did. Well put down clerk typist for 3rd. You never get
your 3rd choice anyway. (yeah right)

First thing I knew I was on my way to Francis E. Warren AFB for Clerk
Typist school. I thought oh no, oh s---, I'm going to be a Remington
Ranger. The slogan was "We never retreat, we just backspace."

It did get better though. While in school they did a complete background
investigation and I got a top secret clearance. Then sent to Scott AFB
for training as a cryptographer. Didn't fly much but very interesting
duty in USAF Security Service and last year at the NSA.

All because I took an "easy" elective in high school.