THERE’S something stylish about a typewriter on display. On recent trips to Turin and Amsterdam, I’ve seen some beautiful typewriters in a hotel reception and in a bar. The typewriter has similar status to Singer sewing machines when it comes to attractive nostalgic decor.
Sleek, bulky, plain, robust, cool, elegant: the typewriter comes in a variety of styles.
Essential to offices from the 1950s through to the early 1990s, the busy tapping sound of keys stamping ink onto paper was common… there was even a ding when you returned the carriage.
Yep, I also have a typewriter… a working typewriter! It’s a decorative feature but I did test it out a few weeks ago. I managed to type four sentences before giving up: my fingers felt like they were doing a tough gym workout, the poor alignment may have suggested I was under the influence of alcohol and four sentences for ten minutes worth of work is downright embarrassing! The funny thing is that I did typing as a subject at school back in 1984. My typewriter and evidence of my poor attempt are featured at the end of this post.
We’ve been spoiled: the typewriter is an excellent machine but we’re now spoiled with computers with softer keys, spellcheckers, a delete button and quick instant editing… no need for Tipp-Ex, ribbon (ink) or dictionaries.
One thing the typewriter did was give us the opportunity to practise scrunching-up that letter which couldn’t be corrected and shooting it basketball style into the waste paper bin. I was one of those who silently screamed “YES” each time my scrunched-up mistake landed straight inside the waste paper bin when launched.
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My mother was a secretary and we always had a typewriter in the house. I remembered how hard it was to press down the keys and the old tippex correction fluid to cover your mistakes. She could manage 90 words a minute, I struggled to put down 5. No carpel tunnel syndrome or repetitive strain injury though, just arthritis of her hands in later life.
Hi Alan. Well, 90 words per minute was awesome – sounds like your mum was a brilliant typist.
I recently realised how hard it is to press down the keys 🤣. Tipp-Ex correction fluid was so popular and quite groundbreaking back then. Thanks for your comments 🙂
My mum was a typist before she had us kids and we had a typewriter at home where Mum was always typing away at something – usually things for my dad’s work as he couldn’t type to save his life! I also had my own little toy typewriter so that I could be like Mum. It’s true there is something very nostalgic about that sound of tapping away at typewriter keys and that ‘ding.’ And you’re right about the aesthetic appeal of a typewriter or vintage sewing machine and now I feel as though I need both in my house! 😀
Charity shops are a great place to start if you’re looking for a typewriter – that’s where I picked mine up at the reasonable price of £25 🙂