If you were born in the early eighties, you may remember typing on your parent's typewriter. You also may have used them in school a time or two. Most of them were electric by that time. Then along came the computer and that awful WPM (words per minute) modules. I still wouldn't win first prize in that room and I still look at the keyboard most of the time. I'm not hunting and pecking anymore so maybe I would get a B instead of the C- this time around.
I can vaguely remember typing on an older model typewriter at my grandmother's house. I would ask to write on it from time to time with a fifty percent chance of being able to. Parents weren't in the business of letting kids fool around with adult toys back in the day. When she would let me, it was the coolest thing ever! I would have stories ready for the typing then read them to her to get her approval. The sound of that machine and the feeling of those keys plunging those slugs into the paper would remain in my heart to this day.
Fast forward to 2021. I was at a local swap meet with my wife and kids which I playfully call The Junk fest. Trying to keep all three of them together in that environment is like herding cats. To say I was irritated would be an understatement. I couldn't wait to get the hell out of there. While walking through the endless rows of junk my eye caught the top of what looked like a typewriter box. The frown was turned upside down in an instant. "Is that a typewriter"? and sure enough, it was a 1948 Remington Rand for $35. Sold!!
It was in damn good condition. I took it home, cleaned it up with a toothbrush and alcohol and it works like a charm. The same feelings I had at my grandparents' house started shining through. I love the preparation. Finding the right stationery for the writing. Half cotton or full cotton? When writing rough drafts or just messing around with my kid's copier paper works just fine. When sending thank you letters or love letters to my wife the full cotton parchment comes out. Loading it like a weapon of words, the sentences fly from the fingers with the sound and feelings reciprocating the creativity. Oh, what a joy!
Then, like some kind of law of attraction, I found another typewriter in the garbage. When I say I found it I mean my friend found it whilst we were looking for garbage treasures. Our small town has a big garbage day that one can throw anything to the curb. If you would have been in the market for a used jacuzzi that night you were in luck. Something had caught my friend's eye, so we stopped. I was done rooting through garbage and needed a beer, so I didn't get out. Then those famous words, "Is that a typewriter"? It indeed was a typewriter! A 1968 Smith-Corona that had seen better days but wasn't so far gone to warrant such a death.
Again, I took it straight home and started to work out the kinks. This one was a little more complicated and in worse condition than the '48. After attaching some of the arms back to the knuckles, cleaning it with the trusty toothbrush and alcohol it's running great again! It has a better button action than the Remington as it types much smoother. The '48 is known as The Word Hammer whereas the '68 types are similar to those early keyboards we used in school.
I love to write but there is nothing that makes it more enjoyable than those two beautiful pieces of engineering. In these times of making writing easier and easier it is always good to set back into the past and see if you can still do it the ole' fashion way. These relics will be looked at like the hammer and chisel in the next hundred years but while they're still available to use it will be my preferred writing instrument.