Typewriters in the Family

I’ll bet most of you know how to type.

It must have been the fall of 1958 when I took at least a semester of typing. Earlham High School had just gotten one or two electric typewriters, so we took turns with the wonderful new gadgets.

Mom got a Facit portable typewriter to use at home, which is how I typed my school papers–even footnotes. I spent my graduation money on a Facit of my own, which saw me through college and beyond. Yes, I still have it. Maybe Granddaughter Kate will enjoy it when she gets old enough.

 

The next one was electric! A Corona XL with cartridges for the ribbon and a correcting tape. Bliss! It’s “portable” but terribly cumbersome and heavy, but electric! (For some reason, I still have this one. Maybe because we’ve lived in the same house 45 years.)

 

When our son Dan got interested in computers, our first one was a MacPlus. What a rigamarole with those floppy discs, but what a joy to work with.

This is what I used to transcribe the WWII letters, making copies for the four surviving siblings. I hadn’t planned at that point to write a book. I needed to do a lot of research and learn to write well enough, which took at least a couple of decades.

Now I use a terrific Dell desktop computer, but I’m charmed by an old Royal typewriter my husband found and cleaned up. This one probably dates from the 1940s, so is as old as I am.

It’s fun to use it as props for books and other stuff.

Our childhood globe from the 1950s sits underneath. My husband refinished the library table, which my folks bought from a neighbor in rural Dallas County when Dad got home from WWII.

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Oh, my piano teacher typed her son’s papers, at least while he was in high school. He became a doctor so probably dictated anything he needed typed. But I decided I was NOT going to type my son’s assignments so made sure he took a semester of keyboarding. That was one great decision! (I bet he’d agree.)