There was a day not so long ago when your parents would buy you a new typewriter to go off to college with. Mine was a black Brothers model, with an auto-correct feature, though I don’t believe it had a memory. So there was a time when we had that typewriter, my wife’s college typewriter, a Swiss manual typewriter from the early '70s, and probably a '60s-vintage Smith-Corona that I learned to type on when I was eight.
They’re all gone now except the manual, which the kids fool around on sometime. I miss the Smith-Corona.
We have an Underwood manual that I played with as a child, and used in middle school for reports (it was old then…). My kids liked to make family ‘newspapers’ on it.
I had an electric one I took to freshman year in college in 1985. One line of memory, woot! Switched to Macs pretty quickly, tho.
I have a Brother electric typewriter that I got in high school. It is currently in the garage waiting for my next trip to the county recycling facility.
I have an ancient Royal portable typewriter in its case upstairs in a closet. Probably weighs about 20 lbs.
Just pulled it out to see if it still worked. Been mostly untouched for years - probably since I last had to type an essay in high school. The distance the keys travel for every keystroke is huge, plus the keyboard is pretty tight together. Feels really weird trying to type on it.
i bought a manual one at a garage sale years ago for $5… great condition, from the 60s maybe… never used it. I just like the idea of being able to type something without having to plug something in.
I did typing for about 3 years in high school… still remember clocking about 30wpm on an ancient manual, with no errors and shocking the rest of the class… then typewriters disappeared overnight.
There’s one up in the cat’s room among the cardboard boxes and other stored stuff. The cats don’t use it and neither have I in years, but as far as I know it still works.
The electric one that was mine has resided with my mom so long I think we consider it hers.
My great-aunt spent her career working for Smith-Corona and she was the one who gifted the typewriters, and would bring a half dozen ribbon cartridges with her when she’d visit.
I just reread the thread title. I can’t say for certain that it still works. I can’t imagine anyone’s tried it out in ages.
I have an Underwood Model 4 that works, or at least it would work if I replaced the ribbon. Got a Linotype too, and it’s sort of a typewriter, if you stand back and squint.
I don’t have any now. I’ve owned probably ten in my life; my mom was a professional secretary who took in typing on the side to make extra money. She had a small portable electric in the 1970s, then a huge IBM Selectric II, then began going through various Smith Corona models. She’d usually have one up and running, another as a back-up, and she had one model that she preferred for making tables and charts. I’d get the hand-me-down (a 10 year old with his very own Selectric II!), then my old hand-me-down would be sold. She finally switched to word processing on a PC when laser printers came down in cost to about $5,000. It was kind of bizarre stepping into our home. The living room looked like a full business office, with a photocopier, laser printers and computers, typewriters on multiple desks, fax machine, three or more dictation machines, filing cabinets.
When I moved out on my own in 1993, I picked up a Smith Corona “word processor,” which was basically a SC typewriter with a disk drive and a little memory. It was so cumbersome and slow to use that I rarely touched it, opting instead to go to the library’s typing rooms if I had anything more than a single page letter in mind. I’ve never replaced it with a printer.
I still have my old Olympia manual tucked away in a closet, and in the event society blows up and the internet goes dead I’ll happily drag it out and start Typing on it again. Bought it at a yard sale for $10 when in college and took it along to my first "desk"job. An office with fifteen people and only one word processor. While everyone else was standing in line for their turn at the word processor, I’d drag the old manual out and go clattering away at a good clip (when in practice I could get around 85 wpm) and have my reports finished long before the others. And yes, I kept a razor knife and paste pot around for those cut-and-paste chores.
I have my father’s 1940-vintage Remington Quietwriter. Needs a new ribbon, I’m sure, but worked when I last tried it.
I have a manual compact unit I bought in Vietnam that should work, again with a new ribbon. Haven’t tried it recently.
And I occasionally use a Silver Reed autocorrecting electric for labels. Much easier and quicker than a computer for single envelopes.
I have a friend who types all her notes and checks on a Selectric, even tho she has a computer, fax and printer. She has a spare Selectric in the closet that works perfectly. I’m sure she won’t give it up until death do her part.
I can’t pass up a working portable manual for under $20, so I’ve had many. Right now I own 10, both electric and manual, most of them working. (I try to fix the broken ones people give me.) I use them to type letters to people, to make gifts, and for zine/graphic work. I give them away from time to time, to people who will actually use them.
Hey Pork Rind, what are you using the linotype machine for? I want one of those and a mimeo machine.
I just realized - I own 10 typewriters and no computer printer. If I met me, I suspect I would roll my eyes about that.
I own maybe 20, all portables. All purchased in the past 5 yrs.
Mostly “small flat portables,” that is Hermes Rockets/Babies, Groma Kolibris, Smith Corona Corsairs, and the like.
Their size and light weight makes them convenient for writing out of doors, and on the go, in places where my laptop might get damaged or encourage a mugging. That’s what I tell myself, anyway. Mainly I like them cause they look cool.
I own 2 working typewriters: an IBM Selectric 2 and a Smith Corona DLE 350. I have ribbons for both of them, packed away in good thick plastic bags (so they don’t dry out here in the desert).
