Community Chat

[conlt]

I did see a show a few years ago and it was about people who actually belong to a typewriter club. They love those classic typewriters. I had an electric Smith-Corona when in college from 1976 to 1980 and I loved that thing. However with no autofix, etc, if I made to many mistakes, I had to start the page over. 

[shoekitty]

Underwood girl here

[jonbon]

Tom Hanks loves, and collects, typewriters.

[jellyBEAN]

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@shoekitty wrote:

Underwood girl here

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The very first typewriter I used was an Underwood.  It was a true manual typewriter, built way before the first electric ones came onto the market.  Underwood was another great typewriter.  I think it had been my grandmother's.  Just like in the captioned Jerry Lewis skit, you had to manually move the roller back with your hand when you reached the end of a line.  And you really had to press those keys down.  In some of the older movies with business office scenes you see the Underwood's being used by the secretaries.

Brings back nice memories.

To all the older typists out there, do you remember when you had to type columns, counting out the number of the longest word/number in the column, counting out the equal spaces between all the columns and then figuring out the math of where to set your margins and tabs?  It really was quite a task.

[RoughDraft]

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@SoX wrote:

I still own and occasionally use the IBM Selectric II typewriter ...

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OMG!  I remember begging my boss to please, please, pretty please add the cost of this beauty in the new budget and miracle of miracles, I got one!

[daisyk]

I love nostalgia and all kinds of retro and retro inspired things, but I don't miss the typewriter personally. I was not a good typist. I knew my keyboard but I would make so many mistakes. I can remember typing cover letters and resumes and it took me forever. I have a 1970's wall phone in my kitchen, but I'll pass on the typewriter-

[gardenman]

Typewriters are still used in many offices for form filling. I put my Dad's old Brother Electric typewriter up on OfferUp a while back asking $20 for it and got no takers. A bit later I looked up the same model on E-Bay and Amazon and found that refurbished models of that typewriter were selling for well over $200. (He paid $99 for it new.) Functional electric typewriters aren't really being made these days, so the older ones that hit the market tend to get a premium price. I ended up glad no one had offered $20 for it. I had no idea they'd gone up that much in value. 

[Mindy D]

I miss typing on real, mechanical keys, with a nice wide keyboard. I typed so much faster when I could use touch typing than I do on my laptop or my iPad. I made less errors too. 

[PilatesLover]

I learned to type on a manual typewriter at business high school.  Typing classes started for sophomores and we had to use manual models.  In junior year we graduated to electric models. What a difference!

There was a large picture of the keyboard on the wall and the nun walked among us constantly making sure nobody peeked at our keys.  She would tap out with her ruler chanting "fff, jjj" etc. as we struggled to reach for the keys.

I think it's been 10 years since I've used a typewriter.

I love those old typewriters.  If I had the space in my house, I would have a collection of antique manual typewiters, cash registers, and old manual machines like that.

[ROMARY]

'Hey', for the past couple of weeks, having so many computer problems after 'updates' (long story), I mentioned to several others that I was going to search typewriters.

That way, I could type letters and send them to people.

Would only take two days or so around here for them to receive them.

I'm still serious.

Long story, but after ANOTHER (allegedly) Micr*soft Edge update, same old story..........couldn't access QVC yesterday.

In fact, a notice popped up this morning:

Cannot connect securely to this page (QVC)....Site might use outdated or unsafe TLS security (whatever that is).

ANYWAY............Sometimes typing letters on a typewriter is the safest, best way in the long run.