Have You Ever Used a Typewriter? - Page 2

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Have You Ever Used a Typewriter? (Page 2 of 3)

Posted: 11/22/2012 10:28:12 AM EDT

[#1]

My guess is that 90+ percent of people that click on this thread WILL have used a typewriter. Those that have not will probably just ignore the thread - so the poll is going to be heavily skewed.

Posted: 11/22/2012 10:28:14 AM EDT

[#2]

Quoted:

Quoted:
I remember when I first ran into a IBM Selectric with an erase key. I though that was the greatest thing ever

LOL, heck yeah! That was high tech. It was like Star Trek technology compared to using liquid white out!

Screw white out! Do you remember the typewriter "erasers" with the stiff brush at the other end?

I do. My mother used to have several. She didn't use it much, but I sure did.

Posted: 11/22/2012 10:28:34 AM EDT

[#3]

I typed the ships "Gunnery Doctrine" on a manual one!! would rather stand an evap watch then do that again!!

Posted: 11/22/2012 10:28:54 AM EDT

[#4]

IBM Selectric

Posted: 11/22/2012 10:30:51 AM EDT

[#5]

I had to use one in high school for some duel credit assignments. Im 22 now.

Posted: 11/22/2012 10:31:05 AM EDT

[#6]

Took a typing class in HS. All they had back then was electric typewriters.

Posted: 11/22/2012 10:32:20 AM EDT

[#7]

Quoted:
Freshman year HS, mandatory class, interesting format, the classroom had a large picture of a keyboard high on the wall at the front of the class, all the typewriters had blank keys, no letters, numbers or punctuation marks.

Was that the norm for typewriting instruction when you learned?

I've never heard of that but it might be a good idea. Did it work for you?

I type Dvorak on a standard QWERTY keyboard, so the keys may as well be blank. Some of the high-end mechanical keyboards can be bought with blank keys:

Posted: 11/22/2012 10:32:55 AM EDT

[#8]

Learned on IBM Selectric in the 9th grade, typed 35-40 words a minute.

Posted: 11/22/2012 10:33:06 AM EDT

[#9]

Quoted:

Pased in High skoll baerly

This

Posted: 11/22/2012 10:33:38 AM EDT

[#10]

Quoted:
Heck, yes! I'm in my early 40s. Learned to type on a very sticky manual ca. 1982. And I still miss IBM Selectrics!

We have an old electronic typewriter from the 90s in the office to type up the occasional gov't form that MUST be typed. I'm one of the few that actually knows how to use it AND I actually like using it. We've got youngsters who have NO idea how to work the thing!

Why would younger people not knowing how to use it be weird? I'm 30 and have no idea how to use one. I recall seeing them around as a child but by the time I was old enough to need to type anything they had gone the way of the dinosaur and the 8 track. Rotary dial phones though I know. My grandma had one when I was growing up. Actually she still rented her phone from the phone company up until 2005. Great big clunky thing that you could beat somebody to death with.

Posted: 11/22/2012 10:34:35 AM EDT

[#11]

Yes, still own it but it's in storage.

Posted: 11/22/2012 10:34:54 AM EDT

[#12]

Quoted:
Took a typing class a long assed time ago. But it was Yahoo chat that really taught me how to type.

Same here.

Posted: 11/22/2012 10:35:44 AM EDT

[#13]

Learned on an IBM Selectric back in 1973.

Posted: 11/22/2012 10:35:56 AM EDT

[#14]

Yes, that's how I learned. I used to love to jam all the keys together and then unjam them when I was a kid.

Posted: 11/22/2012 10:37:55 AM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
Freshman year HS, mandatory class, interesting format, the classroom had a large picture of a keyboard high on the wall at the front of the class, all the typewriters had blank keys, no letters, numbers or punctuation marks.

Was that the norm for typewriting instruction when you learned?

Not typewriting but the keyboarding class I took in high school was that way. You had to type, not look and peck.

Posted: 11/22/2012 10:38:18 AM EDT

[#16]

I was too poor to afford a computer in the 90's so I'm pretty sure I was one of the last students in the US to have graduated college with every paper typed on a Smith Corona

Posted: 11/22/2012 10:48:36 AM EDT

[#17]

IBM Selectric was Tier 1 back in the day when computer printers were all dot matrix.

Posted: 11/22/2012 11:03:21 AM EDT

[#18]

I learned to type on one, and we upgraded to an electric one when I was in Jr. High.
Then we got a PC in 1996.

Posted: 11/22/2012 11:03:51 AM EDT

[#19]

In the early '70s, I learned to type on a manual type writer. My HS class did have one electric typewriter. I was quicker with the manual back then, way too easy to make a mistake on an electric.

Nowadays, it is easy to correct mistakes. I probably type faster now than when I was a teenager.

Posted: 11/22/2012 11:08:22 AM EDT

[#20]

Quoted:

Quoted:
Heck, yes! I'm in my early 40s. Learned to type on a very sticky manual ca. 1982. And I still miss IBM Selectrics!

We have an old electronic typewriter from the 90s in the office to type up the occasional gov't form that MUST be typed. I'm one of the few that actually knows how to use it AND I actually like using it. We've got youngsters who have NO idea how to work the thing!

Why would younger people not knowing how to use it be weird? I'm 30 and have no idea how to use one. I recall seeing them around as a child but by the time I was old enough to need to type anything they had gone the way of the dinosaur and the 8 track. Rotary dial phones though I know. My grandma had one when I was growing up. Actually she still rented her phone from the phone company up until 2005. Great big clunky thing that you could beat somebody to death with.

It's weird because they're scared of it! You offer to show them and they freak...while they refuse to learn, those of us who know how to use the thing get stuck doing their work. Why the gov't can't turn these forms into writable pdfs, I've no clue. The next time it happens, I'm sitting one of the scaredy cats at the typewriter and FORCING them to use it. It ain't rocket science!

Posted: 11/22/2012 11:08:43 AM EDT

[#21]

Quoted:

Quoted:
I remember when I first ran into a IBM Selectric with an erase key. I though that was the greatest thing ever

LOL, heck yeah! That was high tech. It was like Star Trek technology compared to using liquid white out!

Screw white out! Do you remember the typewriter "erasers" with the stiff brush at the other end?

I do. My mother used to have several. She didn't use it much, but I sure did.

I remeber those, and right before I stopped using the manual, I remember light slips of white out paper you coulduse too.

Remember the onion skin "typing paper"

Posted: 11/22/2012 11:12:12 AM EDT

[#22]

Ayyuppp.....

Posted: 11/22/2012 11:22:42 AM EDT

[#23]

I understand these are still popular in Brazil

Posted: 11/22/2012 11:24:05 AM EDT

[#24]

Learned to type on one. I graduated HS in 96. Now it seems odd we used typewriters in 93.

Posted: 11/22/2012 11:24:14 AM EDT

[#25]

I took typing in high school on one

Posted: 11/22/2012 11:25:45 AM EDT

[#26]

took typing class in High School.

I have an IBM Ball typewriter in the hall closet and the wife has a daisy whee type writer at her office.

Posted: 11/22/2012 11:28:08 AM EDT

[#27]

I still use a typewriter nearly every day in my work.....and I collect vintage

manual portable typewriters. Have them dating from

1937 to 1959

Posted: 11/22/2012 11:29:32 AM EDT

[#28]

Electric typewriter

Posted: 11/22/2012 11:33:55 AM EDT

[#29]

hell, i used to repair them

Posted: 11/22/2012 11:34:30 AM EDT

[#30]

Banged out many a report on one, both manual and electric. With carbon paper too, which I'm sure many have never seen/used/heard of.

Posted: 11/22/2012 11:35:17 AM EDT

[#31]

Quoted:
I serviced IBM Selectric's, as did my father before me

Posted: 11/22/2012 11:36:07 AM EDT

[#32]

We used one for typing class my freshman year of high school. My parents got me one for home that year too. Then we got a computer the next year, and I never used a typewriter again.

Posted: 11/22/2012 11:39:02 AM EDT

[#33]

My Selectric III is about six feet away right now.

Posted: 11/22/2012 11:40:01 AM EDT

[#34]

Quoted:

Quoted:
My department still had them in use when I retired this past May.

Huh, I wonder where they get parts and ribbons. I looked years ago to replace my office typewriter because there were still a few doorman that had to be typed and could not find one

There are still a bunch of places in the Houston metro area that will happy service Selectrics and other typewriters.

Posted: 11/22/2012 12:05:30 PM EDT

[#35]

I used one of these at home and at work for about 8 years, a long time ago and in a different galaxy.

Then I had access to IBM Selectrics.

I didn't like them because they were way too sensitive - just a light touch on the keys. I had "Underwood Hand", where your fingers supplied all of the force driving the machine. You had to jab hard on the keys to get the drive force required for normal density typing on the paper. A light touch on an Underwood would give light, illegible strikes driving the ribbon onto the paper, and sometimes a "dud" where the type arms didn't even fly out fast enough to strike the ribbon and paper at all.

Posted: 11/22/2012 12:10:58 PM EDT

[#36]

Learned to type on an electric.

Posted: 11/22/2012 12:12:54 PM EDT

[#37]

Back in the old days. Took typing in school. Never really got good at it till computers though.

Posted: 11/22/2012 12:14:58 PM EDT

[#38]

Yup. My dad used to have one, used it all the time.

Posted: 11/22/2012 12:15:25 PM EDT

[#39]

Hand me down royal and then stepped up to a IBM selectric. The IBMs were nice.
Typing class also known as office machines (electronic office calcs also tossed in) was also an easy "A" in HS, taken by the jocks and those that needed the credit to graduate.
Ceramics was another easy "A" taken by cheerleaders and jocks. I sucked at it but you only had to show up and complete the projects.

Posted: 11/22/2012 1:04:14 PM EDT

[#40]

Learned to type In HS. Once I got assigned to a Tank company in Germany back in the early 70's. It was find out I could type so I got to be the Troop clerk. From there I transferred to an Army Band and became an Admin NCO for an Army chorus! Best job I have ever had

. I own and occasionally use an early 20's Royal
portable.

ModelABob

Posted: 11/22/2012 1:05:46 PM EDT

[#41]

Still used them in college to write papers.

Yeah, I'm not getting any younger

Posted: 11/22/2012 1:17:35 PM EDT

[#42]

I'm 31 and used 1 up till soph year of hs. when i switched high schools my soph year, their "typing" class was all computers. granted at home I had been using a computer for stuff since the 3rd grade, but thats about it.

Posted: 11/22/2012 1:21:52 PM EDT

[#43]

High school class and I'll never forget.....

1976, teacher is Miss Woo. Always wore short skirts as was the style back in the 70's.

She would have to reach up on her tippy toes to write on the chalkboard and her skirt would hike up and give us all a show.

Yes I like typing class, as did the rest of the football team.

Posted: 11/22/2012 1:44:56 PM EDT

[#44]

I just thought about this,how much shittier I type now that I use a tablet and smart phone 99% of the time!

Posted: 11/22/2012 1:57:16 PM EDT

[#45]

Remington and Olympic while I was at Division at Bragg. After a couple of years of humping in the bush, I became a Remington Raider. Chairborne!

Then in civilian life, IBM Selectric was the Cadillac.

Posted: 11/22/2012 1:59:24 PM EDT

[#46]

The Navy taught me how to type and take morse code at the same time. No letters on the keys. A Marine gunny at the front of the class slamming a yard stick on the desk shouting "I can't hear you"...... Dit Dah ...hitting the A key...ALPHA hitting the A key again and so forth. Even the garbage trucks were sending me code after awhile.

Posted: 11/22/2012 2:00:01 PM EDT

[#47]

I owned an antique Underwood No. 5 that I used through school.

Posted: 11/22/2012 2:06:26 PM EDT

[#48]

Quoted:
I still have two Smith Corona cartridge types. I'm 51 and remember typing classes in high school.

Chris

52; took typing as an easy elective in school.

Posted: 11/22/2012 5:37:14 PM EDT

[#49]

I have an old electric one in the attic. Bought it for a $1 at a Boy Scout Fundraiser.

Posted: 11/22/2012 5:39:06 PM EDT

[#50]

Yep, still had typing classes when I went to high school.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Have You Ever Used a Typewriter? (Page 2 of 3)

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