What's a Typewriter?

This happened a couple months ago, and I thought it was just a fluke, until it happened again last week.

I use a computer at work all the time, but I do have a typewriter, which I hardly ever use except to maybe quickly address an envelop.

There was a couple students in the office and one came up to me while I was typing an envelope and said to me, "what's that?" I looked at him wondering if he was being a smart ass, and said, "it's a typewriter". He says "no way". Another student popped up and both were open-mouthed watching me type in amazement. I jokingly told them both to "sit down, you're making me feel old."

There happened to be a parent in the office who saw it and she said she had her old records out a while back, and her son said, "wow, what huge cd's".

Thinking about it, I guess it does make sense. Who has a typewriter anymore? A thing of the past. Our kids/grandkids will never have occasion to use one most likely. Just thought I'd share. I got a real chuckle out of it.

TIS

That's alright, we used to have an old manual typewriter at our house, and we eventually phased it out with a computer. However, I remember one day when I was in middle school (I think 7th grade) when I went into one of the back rooms in the library to get a reference book and I noticed an IBM electronic typewriter...

Later that year, one of the clubs I was involved in (Model UN) had to send out forms and such for a conference, so our advisor asked if I would type up the envelope. I must've wasted three or four envelopes before someone told me that electronic typewriters have a delete function.

The same with record players. My daughter, who teaches elementary school heard the phrase "phonograph" and didn't know what it was, until someone else referred to it as a record player.


TIS

It's kind of sad that I still refer to albums as LP's.

TIS, I experienced something similar when I was teaching the SAT program for Kaplan Test Prep. Two of my students were trying to get together so that one of them could print a term paper out at her friend's house, since her printer was down. I laughed and told them that when I was in high school, it was a big deal that one of the girl's got her father's secretary to type her paper on an IBM Selectric using the script ball. The entire class looked at me as if I had 6 heads. Then I heard one whisper, "What's an IBM Selectric?", and when informed that it was a typewriter, said, "Oh, she must be really OLD."

My first fulltime job (back in 1971) was for a law firm in which I was given the responsibility for ordering office supplies. They were just going through the process of changing over their typewriters from the old electric ones to the new IBM Selectrics. I had never even seen one before, so as luck would have it one of the secretaries called me and told me she needed a "ribbon" for her machine. I went down to her desk and looked to see which ribbon she was using and was astounded when I saw there were no "keys" in the machine. I told her I thought her typewriter was broken. She called the Office Manager who then called me into her office to see what was going on. I laughed and told her I was joking (I wasn't) and quickly called my supplier for help (who told me which "ribbon", or more accurately, "cassette", I needed).

How about carbon paper? Does anyone use that anymore?

At least you don't make a typo on your computer and look for the wite-out.

Don't be so sure of that!

Remember mimeograph machines, and how everyone in class would smell their paper if the copies were fresh? That purple stuff smelled sooooo good!!

Is it just coincidence that my avatar can be seen on the computer?

No, that was on purpose.... that was from your post about Wite Out.

I REALLY do keep it near my p.c.

Two of my friends once actually broke into the mimeograph room and found a copy of the "master" used for one of our tests (similar to what was shown in "Animal House").

I think it was the only Biology test that I ever aced.

wite out could be addictive to look at so be really really carful!!!

Wow.

I had a manual typewriter through most of grade/high school -- what a bitch it was typing footnotes! Then I upgraded to a fancy, new electric typewriter. Much better, but still a pain in the ass. And loud! I still have it, but haven't used it in years. I can't imagine trying to fill out a long form (like a college admissions form) with a computer, so thought it was good to have one around. By Grad School I had taken my old Apple //e from my parents house to use for my papers -- attached to a dot matrix printer!

I can't imagine how much better my grades would've been had I had a computer, color printer, and Internet back then! (Then again, I'm sure at the same time I'd've been doing everything but researching and typing a paper! )

Most worthwhile class I've ever taken was Typing in high school -- who'd've known how important that would turn out to be! (I suppose my 2 computer programming classes in high school were helpful, too )

As for vinyl LPs and 45s, I still have all mine. Last year my parents got me one of those LP/CD/radio/cassette thingies so now I can play them again. I have too much vinyl that'll never be released on CD probably (bootlegs, singles, etc), so good to have.... But I am bummed that my 8-track player doesn't work any more!!

I bought a brother electric typewriter that I took with me to law school in 1986. The law school had a bank of pcs that some students used, but thet were foreign to me. My 9 year old daughter, who is very comfortable with a computer has the typewriter in her room; she thinks it was one of my toys when I was a kid.

I too fondly remember the mimeographs and how the entire class would put the papers up to their faces and inhale deeply before taking an exam.

Along the same line, my kids get a kick out of the upstairs phoe in my parents' house. It has a dial instead of buttons. They like the rat-a-tat sound of the clicks after dialing a number.

When my kids were about 10 (they are now 21 and 19) I told them about typewriters, carbon paper, mimeographs, heating things without a microwave, no cable, no internet, no X boxes, no video tapes (DVDs were just coming in), no video cameras,no color television, no central air conditioning, and propeller aircraft. They thought (and still think) I came from the stone age.

Remember TV dinners? The major convenient breakthrough where all you have to do is preheat the oven, put the tray in for a short 45 minutes, and voila! your slice of turkey in gravy, a spoonful of mashed potatoes and peas and carrots, and brick hard brownie are ready.

I can still smell those mimeograph copies -- we called them "dittos" tho... mmmmmm

Carbon paper! God, what a mess! lol

Our first cable box had a remote - attached to a long cable. And it was about as big as my cable modem. We always had color TV, but mine was B&W for the longest time. My folks picked up one of the first microwaves and it was amazing back then - heat up a cup of coffee in a minute!

In grade school, in addition to films, we used to watch "film strips". Do they still even make those?

Geoff, I was thinking the same thing. We didn't get cable till my senior year of High School and we had that big remote that was hooked to a phone cord. I remember in school we got to take turns turning the knob for the film strips. Remember those little square slides?

I have two typewriters which I do a fair share of my writing on. Typewriters are best with free-association writing, which I'm not a big fan of, but can help to produce that classic writing mentality. When I write on my computer, which I also often do, it is harder to get into that classical mindset.

The Doc

P.S. I have a record player too!

I remember film strips. They always seemed to have been produced by McGraw-Hill Texts. I remember the tinny sound of the audio and the high pitched "bing" that signaled that it was time to change the strip. Invariably, when the students were allowed to run the projector, the picture, beamed on the screen, seldom corresponded to what the audio was saying at the time. Was this a common problem, or was it because my classmates and I were slow?

Do they still make tape recorders, and does anyone still buy them?

I'm actually in the process of converting some of the more rare LP's we've got into digital ones.

Oh, if only that multi-format device they got me had a CD burner in it! Might not sound too great out of its earphone jack...

How can someone not know what a type-writer is? I haven't even lived two full decades yet, and I remember having on in the house as a kid. Back in the day, it's what school reports where done on by my sister and I, until about 1995 or 1996.

Hmm... Now that I put a timeline into perspective, it's quite amazing how far the home computer has come in the last 10 or 15 years.

That's what I thought too LLC, at least at first. The kids in my school (middle school) are 11,12 & 13. Well, by now everyone has a computer. I imagine it's possible, since like you say, the last 10/15 years computer hit it big, that they haven't seen one.
Hard to believe though hu?

I do remember carbon paper, and having to type something in triplicate or more. I hated making mistakes and having to correct each copy. Then there was white out and remember the correcto tape???

TIS

I picked up a TEAC compact lp to cd "burner" last year for my hard to find lp titles. I paid over $300, but they're coming down in price now.

I'm glad the technology is public now, because although I initially bought it just to convert my old records, I use it all the time just to play them. I love the smell of vinyl in the morning.

Now, if I could just find my father's old reel to reel tapes.

That's so funny about remotes!! My kids think it's hilarious when I tell them that I WAS the remote when I was their age. My dad would call me from whatever I was doing to change the channel for him.

As for 8 tracks, my first car had an 8 track player. It was a 1973 Dodge Coronet, robin's egg blue with a white vinyl roof and a bench seat. Quite the mode of transportation!!

When I told my daughters' that when I was a kid, we only had 3 channels and that the tv went off the air at a certain time at night (1:00?), they couldn't believe it.

I too had many 8 tracks from the 70's. I had a garage sale in the early 90's sometime and just threw the 8 tracks along with the case in the sale. I was shocked when some trucker came by and bought the whole thing. You never know.

As far as reel to reel, I have those as well; my wedding movies, my kids as babies, and the one I really cherish from 1939/40 or so, a brief 3 or 4 minutes of my parent's engagement party.

I had all the reel-to-reels put on DVD. I paid a lot, but it was sure worth it. Besides, try finding a movie projector these days. (What's a movie projector you say?

TIS

A movie projector!! Wow. That was so much fun, though. I remember my dad would make such an event of showing them when he got them back from being developed. We would close the lights and all gather around, tell my brother how much to adjust the height of the screen. And there were the inevitable shadow animals, too. It was nice.

Klyd, re: the tape recorders. A few years ago, my daughter's French teacher insisted that they do pronunciation assignments on cassette tapes and hand them in. We looked high and low for a tape recorder, and could only find the mini ones in the stores, which the teacher wouldn't accept. We finally ended up recording them onto the computer as .wav files and emailing them to the teacher.

I'm going to my storage unit to take out my slide projector.

And if the President was on our night was shot. Speaking of the tv's we had 2 knobs one for uhf and one for vhf.

Surely they've seen pictures, etc. of typewriters.

You would think so!! The way they were hovering over the typewriter watching as I was typing was plain comical.



TIS

Vinyl? Around here, it's shellac!

Still have my old portable manual typewriter (we used to call it Manuel) sitting in the corner.

Fondly remember the difference between a mimeograph and a rexograph.

The 8-track player still plays.

So does the 1950's DeJur 8mm movie projector.

Don't own a microwave.

Don't own a cell phone...yet.

The only DVD player I have is built into the computer.

Had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

Signor V.

Sounds like you had to be dragged kicking and screaming in the 20th century, Signor V.

Sorry SV, you know I love ya, but I just couldn't resist.

You're absolutely correct - that's just how I used to describe myself up until the millenium swamped me like a tidal wave!

Signor V.

I used to type up my history notes on a typewriter in high school. Now I can't compose unless I am using a PC. Madonne!

We had the home movie projector, and my grandparents had the slide projector, which they would take out every Thanksgiving night. While most of the slides were from the fifties and early sixties before I was born, I'd love watching them.

My favorite slide was a picture of my grandfather standing near the counter of a department store wearing a coat and hat, looking towards the camera with an unpleasant expression. The family couldn't remember where or why the picture was taken until my grandmother recalled that he was unable to work the camera and had brought it back to the store saying it wouldn't work. The clerk then simply snapped the picture of my disgruntled grandfather...after he took the lens cap off.

I remember before television came on in the morning (about 6 a.m. I think) they had a test pattern showing an Indian with a big feathered thing on his head. Since TV was B&W I wonder what the purpose of this was?

I remember the first time that I saw the NBC Peacock on a color TV. I found it amazing!! We didn't get our first color tv until the 1970's.

Does anyone remember the Million Dollar Movie? I remember that my mother always did her ironing late at night while watching that, and they would play the theme from Gone With the Wind as their opening music.

My system is a bit more complicated, but I like the results...I run a stereo jack into my audio card on my PC and use Adobe Audition to edit the files into individual tracks, remove all the noise and hiss and artifacts, and then burn them onto a disc. It works really well.

Actually, my next step is transferring all our VHS to DVD; I've been thinking about picking up one of those Hauppage WinTV cards, but I haven't done so yet.