Why, when I was a kid...

[flybye023]

Thought I'd share this story since it really cracked me up when it happened:

I just started working in a shipping office. We have truckers in and out all day and, since school is starting soon, a lot of them have been bringing their kids with them for one last summer trip.

A couple of days ago one of these guys was waiting around because we were having trouble loading his truck. His son (I'm guessing around 7-8 years old) was wandering around our office kinda bored. I pretty much ignore him since he's not causing any trouble and his dad's keeping a fairly close eye on him. Suddenly I hear him making a small commotion:

Kid: Dad! Dad! what's this?!

Dad: Oh, that's a typewriter.

Kid: Wow! what's it do?

So we gave him a piece of paper from the recycle box and let him figure out what a typewriter does. He sits there typing for several minutes then exclaims:

Kid: Ohhhh. Dad! I goofed up. Now what?

Dad: Nothing. You goofed up. There ain't no delete key on those things.

Gosh. Has it really been that long since typewriters were used? I'm only 32 and I learned how to type on electric typewriters in high school and we had fairly new machines too, only about 3-4 years old. I feel old

[Pezzle]

For the love of god, I'm only 19 and I at one point OWNED a typewriter, probably something like a decade ago. I still like to use them!

[Horsetuna]

I had one too, but only becuase I thought they were cool. I could never type really fast on them though (I ended up putting my fingers between the keys) and never hit them hard enough.

[Seshat]

My father had a typewriter. I learned to use it to help me write creatively. Computers were those big things that big companies had, or sometimes smaller things with greenscreens that really rich people had.

[CaroPhoenix]

I learned how to type on my mother's manual (non-electric) typewriter when I was like 12. During the summer months, my mother would have me read a few books and then type up book reports for her.

And I used new electric typewriters (with the correction tape in them) in high school & I graduated in 1990!

[DGoddessChardonnay]

I still have a typewriter (an early 80's Brother electric similar to the IBM Selectric), just haven't used it in a couple of years or so. It's packed up out in the building until the office is remodeled, then I'll bring it back in along with the vintage stereos . . .

I graduated in '88 and remember clearly the Brother electric typewriters we used in typing class . They were awesome - but a bit too expensive for me to purchase one for myself at home.

Now, if anyone knows where to still find those correction strips (they came in a small flip top box and were small rectangular shaped white strips that you used with a typewriter instead of the liquid stuff) I'd be in great shape.

I'd have kept the first one I had (given to me by my Dad for Christmas in 1983), which was a Consul manual dating back to the late 50's, which was identical to this one:
http://www.geocities.com/wbd641/Tilm...ulZP147502.jpg

But unfortunately, it was destroyed in the late 80's by a jealous stepbrother.

[Becks]

I used to have a typewriter. It rocked, except when I typed too fast and the letter arms got stuck together. Now THAT'S talent.

[Boozy]

There is something so satisfying about that clackety-clack noise a typewriter makes.

I kind of miss it.

[ArenaBoy]

I currently own a 1950s typewriter that belonged to my great-grandmother. It rocks! The thing is heavy though. I once used it to type up a paper for school.

[flybye023]

We had an old manual typewriter at home from probably the 1940's. Weighed a ton. We also inherited an old adding machine from one of my great-grandparents. My mom and dad wouldn't let us use a calculator so we'd use the adding machine on our math homework until our parents caught us and Mom hid it .

[Rapscallion]

Someone did a study and worked out how many fewer calories secretaries were using by going to computers instead of manual typewriters. It was quite an amount, though I cannot remember the figure.

Rapscallion

[Acolyte]

Y'all are OLD.

Nah, I had a typewriter at one point and I'm 20. Been using an actual computer since I was 10 for typing (Run the gamut from a 386 to a AMD X2 64...the times, they are a -changin'.)

[Gurndigarn]

Y'all are OLD.

Damn right, yeh young whippersnapper!

Nah, I had a typewriter at one point and I'm 20. Been using an actual computer since I was 10 for typing (Run the gamut from a 386 to a AMD X2 64...the times, they are a -changin'.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_PET

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System/370

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timex_Sinclair_1000

Somone in my family has played around on each of these. Oh, and manual typewriters, too.

[TNT]

If you guys think typewriters are something, let me tell you about... slide rules.

And yes, I had to use one. I was in the last class at my high school that was required to use slide rules in advanced science courses. Midway through that year, the powers that be decided calculators were more than just a fad and allowed their use. (My chemistry teacher, who was about 104, immediately went on sick leave for the rest of the year -- I don't know if it was related or just a co-incidence.)

[powerboy]

We have an old typewriter at my house. And we also have an electric one also. I have done reports on both of them. Well, until we got our last computer

I used to have a typewriter. It rocked, except when I typed too fast and the letter arms got stuck together. Now THAT'S talent.

Whoa, we have the same talent.

There is something so satisfying about that clackety-clack noise a typewriter makes.

I kind of miss it.

Dammit, now I miss it.