The reason I have been posting so little these past couple of weeks is that I've been on a holiday, geographically and mentally. At the moment, I'm visiting my sister in Olympia and hijacking her computer between meals and outings, since I don't have a laptop or similar device to schlepp around with me wherever I go (nor do I want one).
On one of our outings, we went to an antique mall downtown. Whenever I step into an antique mall or shop, my special antennae sprout up, the antennae which help me seek out books, working fountain pens, dip pens ... and manual typewriters. Of the last, I found two lovely specimens: a 1960s portable Smith-Corona, with case, whose shift mechanism needed adjusting, and a full-size 1940s Royal in wonderful working condition. I always ask the clerk for a piece of paper with which to test the machines, even if I have no intention of buying them, simply because I love the "touch" and "action" of manual typewriters (I don't know if their manufacturers used these pianistic terms, but I'm using them anyway). Each machine has its own feel; the keys on one may be much easier to depress than on another, a very important factor in choosing a typewriter. I'm sure the action can be adjusted, as it can to an extent on a piano, but the basic feel would remain the same.
As I was testing these typewriters, a woman and her two daughters gathered behind me to watch. The older daughter in particular was fascinated. I typed out the standard practice sentence, "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country" and at the jumping up of the hammers and the clacking noise they made, she exclaimed, "Co-o-ol!"
"Give it a try," I said to her. She began to type, and immediately discovered that she needed to use larger muscle groups just to depress the keys, and she couldn't type as fast as she could on a computer keyboard. The hammers jumped up and clumped together. Laughing, she gently pushed them back down.
"See?" I said. "It won't let you rush. It gives you more time to think before you write."
Even her younger sister wanted to try it out, which she did -- and she, too, pronounced it "cool." I told them that a bell dinged when you reached the end of the line, and showed them how to use the carriage return lever. They were amused and fascinated, and I was amused at their fascination.
Who knows? Maybe I won them over to the wonderful bygone (but not vanished) world of the typewriter. Maybe, hopefully, I've opened a tiny window to the past for them that will allow them to appreciate more the rich history and development of the things they have now. Maybe now, when their fingers fly effortlessly on their electronic keyboards, they'll think not only of how far we've come, but how much we owe to what we once had.
There is a lovely blog dedicated to vintage and historical photography called The Passion of Former Days, whose current post is devoted to photographs showing people using typewriters. I hope you check it out and enjoy.
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