Does Anyone Else Also Use Manual Typewriters? What For?

[Kamuela]

I took 4 years of Latin in school (this was back in the 1970's), and my teacher was always complaining that he couldn't read my handwriting (funny, nobody else ever complained). Our homework assignments were required to be in a spiral-bound notebook. So, the way I shut him up was to unwind the spiral binding at home, take out a page and put it in my typewriter, type out my assignment, and finally re-thread the spiral binding back onto my notebook, including the typewritten pages. Both my teacher and fellow students were awe struck - they couldn't figure out how I was able to stuff my whole notebook into a typewriter! And, this was a college prep school with supposedly "bright" students. Anyway, that teacher's harassment was turned into respect from that point forward.

Very shrewd indeed!!!

Cool.

jim.

[Kamuela]

I'm a retired businessman. (back in the day) I used to use manual typewriters to type out tenant leases and contracts, in triplicate, with icky carbon paper.

 

Times have sure changed. . . . . .

 

aloha

jim

[dkirchge]

I used one when I was in grade school for my reports, then upgraded to an electric in college, although at that point I wound up using a word processor more often than not, I bought a Royal a few years ago for creative writing projects and my wife loved the sound, but I found I preferred doing my creative writing with pen and ink, so let the typewriter go.

[omarcenaro]

Grandfathers typewriter. Works like a charm. I replaced the ink ribbon a few years ago and its still good. I've use it a few times to fill out some forms.

 

[Kamuela]

 

Grandfathers typewriter. Works like a charm. I replaced the ink ribbon a few years ago and its still good. I've use it a few times to fill out some forms.

 

 

 

What a beauty!

j

[dennis_f]

 

Grandfathers typewriter. Works like a charm. I replaced the ink ribbon a few years ago and its still good. I've use it a few times to fill out some forms.

 

 

 

That's just beautiful. Wow.

[ParramattaPaul]

I hated doing it, but I donated the Smith Corona portable typewriter that traveled much of the known world since I bought it in early 1969. That was at the insistence of my late wife during a particularly aggressive 'Spring Clean'.

 

St. Vincent de Paul's gain, my loss albeit mostly nostalgic.

[Aquaria]

I have an old electric Olivetti from (I think) the 60s or 70s, that I use for labels--mailing, file folder, etc. When I need only a handful of printed labels, the typewriter is aces, because I can pick up where I left off on a large roll or sheet. Sometimes, I need only 8-10 file folder labels, not 200 of them. So I can type them up, quick as can be, and no worries about how to align that half-used sheet of labels into the printer to get them to work.

 

I prefer them for typing addresses onto an envelope for mailing. I don't do this often, so I only need something quick and easy.

 

For anything I need to fill out on a duplicate or triplicate form--increasingly rare, but still out there, I use the typewriter.

 

I also used it in the past for practicing typing tests, because it's the best way to gauge accuracy. You can't cheat by hitting a correct button with most of the old school typewriters.