Typewriter Memories

I watched the CBS Morning Show this morning and Bill Geist reported on the Typewriter Renaissance.  I thought the story was so interesting.  It took me right back to learning to type at the age of 13 or so.  Mother had an old fashioned typewriter, I think a Royal, green, in a case.  I used to get that thing out and she still had her typing book from her few classes at TU, so I taught myself how to type.  The book was a beginner typing book and I typed like a breeze on the thing.  I practiced and practiced,

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.

Over and over again I typed that sentence and the practice runs from the book.  Plus her typewriter had the manual hand carriage, so when you got the end of the sentence or heard the ding, you reached up with your right hand and slammed it back to the front of the next line.  Over and over again I typed...ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 1234567890....over and over again I practiced.  

When I finally went to high school I was ready for typing school.  First day of typing class, and I had two years, I walked into the room and there they were, typewriters, and entire room of either Smith-Corona or Royal machines, waiting to be hammered on and now manual hand carriage.  I thought we would just learn to type and since I already knew how to type it would be a breeze, NOT!  We learned how to type but we also learned how to type letters, papers, envelopes, the proper ways to type, what secretaries do.  Wait, I didn't want to be a secretary, did I.  Well, it was a career and I had no other prospects for a career except to work at the local five and dime store.  For two years I typed away and learned how to do the proper stuff, still have my little handbook for the different types of addressing envelopes and letterheads.  I don't know if the information is of relevant use anymore but I still have the book.  

When I finally graduated, after two years of typing and a year of shorthand, also self-taught some.  I was NOT ready to be a secretary, but the experience helped when I got a job at the local credit bureau.  We used CRT's and my typing skills came in very handy.  I loved that I didn't have to use correction paper to fix the mistakes.  You could just back up and correct as you went.  I flew on that keyboard.  

When we began our business we had to buy a typewriter, because computers were not happening in the everyday office yet.  I typed out invoices, one line at a time, over and over again.  I HATED IT!  If I made a mistake and they were many, The Hubby was not happy.  Mistakes are not happenin' in his world, but I had to "educate" him to my world, mistakes HAPPEN!  Gosh, I had to type each line of invoices that had over 200-300 items listed and he listed everything.  EEK!  Sometimes I would rather just write them out and I did.  I typed that stuff out for nearly 15 years when we finally went modern and got a computer and a program, Quickbooks! It was AWESOME!  Yet, still I type out each and every piece of material we put into a job, from a generator to the tons of wire nuts or ground screws that are put into the project.  I type, but it's a couple of keystrokes and the line fills in!  Is it no wonder that I have issues with carpel tunnel sometimes.  

Do you have typewriter memories?