I don’t know whether I find this funny, depressing, or horrifying. I came across this old typewriter last weekend in the Hastings Building during the historic buildings tour in Port Townsend. It looks just like the machine on which I learned to type. In those days we learned to type, not “keyboard.” I was in junior high school. The teacher walked up and down between rows of desks. Our hands were on “home row” and as she walked, she clapped and rhythmically called out, “A, S, D, F, G, H, J, K, SEMICOLON.”
As I learned to type, an electric typewriter was a fancy dream. The progression since then has been dizzying. Today I slip a Kindle Fire in my purse that easily has more power than my first half dozen computers combined. Yet when I look at that Smith Corona above I can still hear the slapping hands and “A, S, D, F, G, H, J, K, SEMICOLON.”
I thoroughly hated typing class but now am happy that I was forced to take it since I have been typing efficiently for years now. The male instructor would be arrested if the same thing occurred today, snapping the girls’ bra straps as he walked up and down the aisle. After I told him, “If you do that one more time, I’m going to throw this typewriter out the window!” he stopped. . . at least in my class.
Love typewriters, the older the better! 🙂
Oh I remember it well – type tap type tap – and we had ONE electric typewrite in our high school typing class and we took turns. I thought the thing was going to jump right off the table, after using those big old Smith Coronas – good thing we were young and strong.
I just learned that our smart phones have more computer power than the computers used to launch the early space flights – that boggles the mind – at least it boggles mine.
it looks nice! as a kid i really liked to type on a typewriter..
i never officially learned to type… haha
Oh yes we had one of these, which my mother used. And when I tried to learn typing I remember the “A, S, D, F, G, H,