Everyday Canvas

Typewriters

Prompt: Have you ever used a typewriter?

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Yes, I certainly have. Many times and for many years. I have used typewriters both mechanical or non-electric, electric, and automatic electric. I wrote my thesis on a non-electric one, a Royal, which we had to have three good copies to hand in. The copy papers didn't work well, so I had to type the stuff three times. What I mean by "stuff" was over a hundred pages. In my earlier years, during high school and college years, a gift of a typewriter was something much appreciated. We could type our stuff on school's machines, but usually, we had to wait in line.

I owned several different typewriters over the years: Remington, Smith-Corona, Brother, etc. The fancier ones had red and black ribbons. In the better ones, you could use the ribbon you wished, plain black, black and red, and later, black and white, the white for erasure. Sometimes, the keys or the carriage stuck or the ribbon mechanism malfunctioned. For those mishaps, there were typewriter-repairmen or shops.

My latest typewriter was semi-computerized and had some memory. It would only print a piece after you saw it on its screen and okayed it. When I was in high school and college, not many people owned even the crudest typewriter. There were even typists who typed stuff for people. Their fees were usually based on word count or you could rent a typewriter.

Thirty to forty years or more ago, we didn’t have much of an alternative. It worked, though. It wasn’t as horrific as the younger, nowadays writers would probably imagine. The thing was, for me, I had to have a perfectly handwritten copy first, so I wouldn’t have to resort to white-outs or white-tape, which came later on. Plus, white-outing was acceptable practice in the earlier times, as long as it wasn't used too many times on the same sheet.

Believe it or not, fifty years or earlier ago, lit and other magazines accepted hand-printed submissions, too. Imagine doing that, today!