I used to be a Medic and Firefighter-- in short I was an adrenaline junkie. And now I’m old and retired. And my body is bent and currently a bit broken. I seek to learn how to be dull.
Despite the enjoyment of watching the hummingbirds at my feeders and the light gardening I do. I still think I could become even more satisfied with my dullness.
Guide me to complete dullness!
I’m right handed and can’t read my writing.
Maybe a typewriter? Preferably in need of repair.
I come from a long ago time when there were no keyboards just typewriters. Vile machines they were, requiring actual knowledge of spelling, punctuation, and grammar. And your correction fluid bottle was always dry.
I’ve cleaned and lubricated a couple back in the day, but never repaired one.
I inherited an electric typewriter, IBM Selectric 2, which was the only thing that could keep up with my Apple ][-trained typing speed… but what I remember most is how dang loud they were.
Oh man, those were quiet compared to manuals. My Mother had a manual at home. I swear you could hear that thing out in the barn when it was milking time.
I can still see my Father pacing the kitchen and dictating to my Mother as she typed.
I wonder if you could dial-in your typing on the manuals to keep the volume down. From what I remember, you needed a lot of pressure and the throw on the key was pretty damn long, so if you’re typing at speed the best thing to do was building up a lot of momentum… I also wonder if there were typewriters designed to be a little easier to type with. I mean, piano keys have a pretty short throw, why can’t typewriters work the same way?
We also have to keep in mind that typing through 2-3 carbons was a use case for these guys, so they’d need to strike with more impact than strictly necessary to leave some ink.
You couldn’t type quietly with a manual or an electric. The issue is you needed to hit the ribbon hard enough to transfer the ink from the ribbon to get a good mark. Add to this the fact that with a manual, once you had gone through the ribbon the first time, you would flip the spools around and start typing again. Which needed an even healthier whack to make a mark. And if times were tough and things were hard, you might do that a third time. Or flip the ribbon upside down and type with the red ink. Ribbons had 2 colors of ink on the same ribbon-- black for regular print and a red half used for highlight or emphases.
Manual typewrites do have their own feel. Some brands do have a lighter touch than others and even individual machines would be different. Much like computer keyboards do today. As a very general rule, those machines that had a heavier feel tended to be better for carbons. Electric typewriters removed a lot the variance in feel due to the electric motor operation. And those had very short throws. I’ve only ever used a couple of electrics, both Seleletric Ball models. They would hit that sum biotchin’ ribbon like it really, really meant it. This was because they were “real” office machines and were expected to do a steady diet of carbon copies.
The real fun in office work was when you got make mimeographs. The fussiness of the setup and the mostly sketchy illegible results were always a guaranteed good time. But the buzz you could get from the transfer liquid! I can still remember that smell.
You’re making me reconsider typewriters. Handwriting is supposed to be “best” as far as our brain and learning is concerned, but typewriting is probably the next best thing with the added benefit of legibility.
My new girlfriend is constantly in the homes of dead people, so I could probably get a deal on a typewriter…
Even us old people no longer have typewriters buried in a closet. We got rid of them when computers and word processing became a thing. Or we just simply stopped typing and gave them away. But don’t let me stop you from the hunt! The hunt is the exciting and thrilling part, not the kill. And why shouldn’t you have a piece of history?
Yeah, handwriting is far better for learning and memory than typing is. You can write things as you learn them. Something that is not so easy to do with a typewriter.
I saw one at the Goodwill last week for $20, so they’re still out there. Maybe you’ve been pretty good about clearing your space, but a lot of people just keep accumulating junk until they have to spenddown to qualify for a medicaid-covered nursing home, or, worse, leave it for their children to clean up.
And, yes, absolutely I love thrifting for the hunt… I’m I stopped watching Sex and the City at the end of Season 2 I have two copies of season 4 and one of season 5, but I’m waiting for season 3 to show up at the thrift stores.