He owed his longevity to cheap Scotch and and strong tobacco.

   / He owed his longevity to cheap Scotch and and strong tobacco. #1  

3930dave

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For eight decades, Manson Whitlock repaired typewriters.....

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/08/nyregion/manson-whitlock-typewriter-repairman-dies-at-96.html?smid=pl-share&_r=2&&_r=3&

That would have been an interesting shop to visit.

I remember reading an article not long ago, from somebody who had been using a portable typewriter in public - it was a challenge to get something done, as so many people were coming up to him to talk about the machine.

Turntables are still being sold, perhaps typewriters may make a comeback....

RIP Mr. Whitlock.

Rgds, D.
 
   / He owed his longevity to cheap Scotch and and strong tobacco. #2  
For filling out the blanks in different forms occasionally, or for occasionally addressing an envelope, I still think the typewriter beats the computer printer. Of course I took typing in high school on manual typewriters; Underwood if I remember right. And in later years, I really liked my Penncrest electric; made by Smith Corona and sold by J.C. Penney.

But some years before I owned an electric typewriter, I'll never forget the day I was happily patrolling my beat in the squad car when the dispatcher told me to report to the captain's office. The captain had a secretary and a clerk typist; one of them had been promoted and transferred and the other had resigned. So they had gone through personnel records, found I could type (not real well, but fair), and I got stuck with the jobs of both those girls for a month or so, until they hired new ones. Now it wouldn't have been quite so bad, except at that time I'd never used an electric typewriter and what I had to use was an old worn out IBM Selectric and that captain measured pages with a ruler to make sure the spacing was exact top to bottom and side to side. No corrections were permitted. Any kind of error meant the whole page had to be re-typed. I sure was glad when I finally got relieved of that job.
 
   / He owed his longevity to cheap Scotch and and strong tobacco.
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Wow Bird, that's military precise typing, that wouldn't have been much fun.

Going through school, I was usually able to sweet talk my sister into typing my big school reports. At the time I didn't think much of the bit of typing that was still taught here in grade school (70's), but after a refresher years later I appreciated how much keyboard time it saved me on a computer.

I'm interested in most things mechanical. As probably the most complex consumer product of it's era, I always liked typewriters for what they were, even if I wasn't crazy about using them at the time.

Rgds, D.
 
   / He owed his longevity to cheap Scotch and and strong tobacco. #4  
Dave, in the police academy, we each had to take notes in the classes, then type (or have them typed) to make a typewritten notebook. I had a cousin who went through the academy and his wife typed his notes and make the notebook. I had to type my own.:laughing: As with other things, they were graded and your class ranking was made public. I graduated #1 of 29 overall, but my notebook was ranked #2.:laughing: And yes, typing classes in high school did help in many ways, including using a computer.
 
   / He owed his longevity to cheap Scotch and and strong tobacco. #5  
I prefer my tombstone say that I owed my longevity to cheap women and strong Scotch.
 
   / He owed his longevity to cheap Scotch and and strong tobacco. #6  
I prefer my tombstone say that I owed my longevity to cheap women and strong Scotch.

How is that working out for you so far?

Loved the article too.
 
   / He owed his longevity to cheap Scotch and and strong tobacco. #7  
I wrote many a Sheriff's report on an IBM Selectric (my favorite typewriter) And typed up many ID tag's for telephones on a variety of machines. In the old days (1970's and 1980's) every office some of them. I guess I haven't touched the keys on a typewriter now in a bunch of years..

James K0UA
 
   / He owed his longevity to cheap Scotch and and strong tobacco. #8  
James, there's no doubt the IBM Selectric was a fine machine, but it was 1967 when I got stuck with that job, and the particular IBM Selectric was probably one of the first ones made in 1961 and had been used by all 3 shifts, by a lot of different individuals, 7 days a week. Instead of firmly pressing keys, you only had to barely touch them; those keys did not have even close to the range of motion of this computer keyboard I'm currently using. So it was a matter of learning to use something that was very different from what I was accustomed to.
 
   / He owed his longevity to cheap Scotch and and strong tobacco. #9  
I probably have a few ribbons and character sets if you want some for your mantle..
 
   / He owed his longevity to cheap Scotch and and strong tobacco. #10  
Carbons, white out, corasible bond paper that you could erase- did a lot of typing in college. The IBIDs and footnotes were the killer!- Olivetti, Royal, Smith Corona.
My first typewriter for school was a small thing purchased with S&H green stamps! It got me through!
 
 
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