Today in 1868 the typewriter was patented

I learned to type in high school in typing class on a manual typewriter. I got pretty fast: 75 words a minute. It wasn’t easy to type all the keys with consistent pressure so they all looked the same. There were no letters on my keys, which forced me to memorize them.

My parents gave me a Brother typewriter for high school graduation in 1974, which I used for typing all my papers in college the next three years. Back then we had to use something like Wite-out to correct mistakes. It was a pain in the butté to put footnotes at the bottom of the page, let me tell you.

Later, when I worked as a secretary, IBM Selectric typewriters were on the scene, with a backspace key that pulled mistakes right off the page. What a lifesaver. I got so fast on those typewriters I would get ahead 0f its capabilities and it would freeze for a second, making me slow down. Man, too bad I didn’t use this agility to develop my piano playing skills.

In 1991, when Don went back to school to finish his teaching degree, we bought our first personal computer, a used Apple 2C – 6” floppy discs and all -- from his brother. With word processing, we could write, rewrite, move words, paragraphs, delete with a highlight and a button. We bought a new home computer every few years as old ones became obsolete.

Last year I got my first laptop, using a money gift I received just for writing a special report for a study abroad program. (That’s when I got my Olympus camera too. Pretty nice gift.) I use my laptop for work and personal use, and I have a desk “port” in my office for easy and quick clipping in and out. I take it home with me most evenings since our home computer got zapped by a thunderstorm last year. We just have dialup at home, bummer.


my office desktop

Before all this technology, I remember seeing dip pens in my father’s desk growing up, the kind with removable nibs, for dipping in an inkwell. My favorite author, Jane Austen, used these. The fountain pen wasn’t invented until the 1850s. If you’re into calligraphy (Ginnie, rauf), check out this in depth page about flex nibs. With carpal tunnel, I can hardly write a thank you note these days, let alone do calligraphy. My sister Boots (aka Ginnie) has beautiful handwriting. It could be its own font style.

I write poems on my laptop. I love starting with that fresh white empty page. Hit “enter” four times to start the first line (the title usually comes later) in Times Roman size 12. Stroke a key and type the first words. My friend Inge loves to write poems in longhand. It’s a beautiful mind-to-hand process, more organic. But me, I love typing on the computer. Sometimes I retype four lines 20 times. Imagine the paper I would waste if I wrote it out!

Out of curiosity, I’d like to know if you:

~ write hand written letters any more?

~ If you write poems, do you like to write them in longhand or on the computer (or on a typewriter)?

~ What’s your favorite pen or pencil? I like rolling ball pens, especially Pilot Precise or Uni-ball.

~ When you post a blog, do you type the text out in a word processing program first?

~ What's your favorite font? At work I use "Comic Sans MS" size 10 in most emails and other documents. When writing poems I use Times Roman size 12.