Books and typewriters are my comfort blankets
I can't resist stopping to stare at a typewriter and always feel nostalgic
Photo by Pereanu Sebastian on Unsplash
Hello and welcome.
Every Friday afternoon in the office, my young colleagues and I would get our soft brushes and a cloth out and lovingly clean our trusty typewriters.
It is hard to imagine now working on such a clunky machine. Each time you neared the end of a row, a bell would ring and instinctively, your left hand would reach out and hit the carriage return lever from left to right and bingo, you were back to starting another fresh line of typing. If nothing else, the old-fashioned typewriters taught me to be accurate because if you made a mistake, it was not easy to correct. I learnt to type before the advent of the Tippex ribbons, which were a game changer.
Working in the legal profession, when typing an important document such as a Conveyance, if we made a mistake, we had to use a razor blade to carefully remove the top layer of the thick paper containing the error. Consequently, we soon learnt to type accurately and keeping our trusty typewriters in good working order was important. The ritualistic weekly cleaning was part and parcel of that process, which had been drummed into us at secretarial college.
When I learnt to touch type, my college tutor taught us the relevance of the home keys, F and J. If you feel these keys, they have a small raised dash on them. This is where your index fingers go; everything after that follows naturally. Or they do for a trained touch-typist. The qwerty keyboard was designed to stop keys clashing and jamming and thus slowing down typists. I recall how if I got over zealous, the metal keys in the ‘basin’ of keys would jam together and I would have to stop typing to untangle them!
Also, letters that are used often, such as A and E are placed on the keyboard to best effect. If you think back to typewriters, when you had to hit the keys fairly hard to make an impression, it makes sense. You would hit the key, which landed on the ribbon and imprinted the letter on the paper. The letters that you used the most would have ‘stronger’ fingers and the lesser used keys, such as the semi-colon, would be hit with the pinky, or ‘weaker’ finger on your right hand.
Our tutor would play William Tell’s Overture because of the rhythmic structure to encourage speed and accuracy. I remember being off sick for a week with influenza when my peers were learning to touch type using the numbers and symbols keys on the top line of the typewriter. Over 50 years later, I can’t type numbers or symbols without looking at the keys! We were never allowed to look at the keyboard when learning to type and a stern look from the tutor would have us looking straight ahead at the blackboard while continuing to type. I can still happily close my eyes and type anything accurately, once my index fingers are neatly placed on the home keys, but not so with the upper row on my keyboard.
I think my fascination began as a young girl when my Mum asked me to type out some recipes for her on an ancient Imperial typewriter, when you had to bash each key hard and words would slowly and laboriously appear on the paper. Back then, it felt like magic.
Every time I see an old typewriter in an antique shop window, I stop and stare. I try to imagine where the typewriter was and what it was used for. Like stepping back in time, and am still as enthralled by them now as I was in the 1970’s when I learnt how to type.
It was an exciting day when we were introduced to the wonders of electric typewriters. The most successful electric typewriter in history was the IBM Selectric, or the golf ball typewriter. It had all the keys on a mechanism likened to a golf ball which improved on the appearance of type due to it being more evenly controlled. I remember them being quite noisy to use but less stressful on your fingers and so much quicker and easier to use than the clunky old manual typewriters.
I am in awe of Tom Hanks’ wonderful collection of old typewriters and if I had more space in my home, I would be tempted to start a collection of my own. There is something about an old typewriter, and I get a similar feeling when I walk into a book shop or library. Typewriters and books are my comfort blankets. I feel warm and fuzzy when I’m around them. It brings on a nostalgic feeling and memories of happy times when I was young and carefree.
But thank goodness for the advent of the word processor, computers and laptops which make typing anything so much easier. I couldn’t imagine trying to type a manuscript on a typewriter. Thoughts change with the wind and plot lines can be altered at the touch of a key; deleted and re-written within seconds. And without using all that paper! I am proud to say that I can still touch type as fast today as I could all those years ago. After all, I’ve had plenty of practice!
I will always have fond memories of typewriters back in their heyday and how they shaped my life as a young secretary.
Did you learn to type on a typewriter? I would love to hear your story. Please leave a comment below.
Until the next time, take care,
I learned to type in my 40's (1990's) as by then, my writing was in full-swing and I needed to type up my handwritten manuscripts. At the same time, I learned my way around a computer with its idiosyncracies which proved handy as technology galloped ahead. (I'm still a techno-dunce tho') .
I still wrote my books by hand until the most recent couple which have been fully on the laptop. Not sure why I changed, except that my hands used to ache after a long session with a pen.
But I do have an old Imperial in the office. Brilliantly black, stylish and oozing nostalgia. It collects dust terribly which is why I'm glad it still has its hard fitted cover.
I do love the sound of clanking typewriter, but not for too long. There’s something beautiful about a typewriter as an object in itself. I guess that’s why Tom Hanks collects them.