I love the look of old typewriters, but the only one I would own is the best typewriter ever, the IBM Selectric II. Used one at many jobs and typed the final of many papers. It killed me to let my mom’s refurbished one go, but it went to a good home: a local tech expert who has a personal collection of typing machines.

LOL my MIL tried to pawn off her IBM on me when she got her first computer. My daughter has a few older models. My mom's old pica type and one from the '40s.

I also love those. I liked the sounds also.

About 7 years ago someone was giving awaya Selectric. I don’t know if it was a I or a II.

It works but only has a bit of tape left. I think it might stall every now and then.

After I got it, I saw someone in the Boston area was offering a bunch of heads (various fonts, characters). I stayed in Boston overnight so that i could coonect with him downtown the next day. He had to postpone the meet up because of a business obligation and I decided I was not going to persue his offer.

Just now, your note reminded me that for some movie, the producers were looking (had been looking for a particular Selectric model, maybe the II. i think it was for a documentary and they wanted it to match exactly. I think they had a bit of a tough go locating the model.

Does this ring a bell with anyone?

I sympathize with your loss re your mom’s refurbished one. Would you want it now? You could probably find one.

I sometimes wish I could live forever and in good health to have more time with friends, family, DH, toys, boats, garden, vintage tools and cooking gear…. But things do not stay the same (“Nothing Gold Can Stay” — Robert Frost poem).

Typing is a good skill to have. I got lazy towards the end of that course and didn’t pay much attention to numerals and special symbols. I regret that. Slows me down.

I learned to type when I was 14 on manual typewriters, and my school had Royal and Smith-Corona machines, which had very different feels, and so I learned to use both. My mother gave me a Smith-Corona portable for Christmas that year, and I used it a lot - mostly to type letters to my pen pals. I also typed copies of poems that I wrote, and I wrote a lot back then.

My school did not have any electric typewriters that I can remember, although it may have had one or two - it was a small school - there were only 40 students in my class in the 9th grade, but I went to a different high school, and then there were over 500 in my class.

I got rid of my typewriters long ago, but the last one I had had memory, which was helpful.

We got our first home PC, a PC-XT, in the mid-80s and there has been no old-fashioned typewriter use in the house since. We'd had both a pretty good electric and a portable one in a case and they were given away. I personally don't miss them.

I learned touch typing in high school and have remained so capable ever since, at a pretty good pace.

I didn't look at your link petalique but I see it includes the name of Tom Hanks. He's apparently a typewriter collector.

For anyone with a similar interest, he wrote a book of short stories (composed using one or more typewriters from his collection) in which the machines feature in (as I recall) a few of the stories. The name of the book is "Uncommon Type"

Thanks, Elmer. I believe Hanks sent his vintage typewriter to Cambridge Typewriter, as a gift.

Who these days would want old electric Smith-Coronas? I think wehave some in the attic.

My father used to write a weekly column and short stories on a typewriter. Darn if I can recall what it was or if it was manual (my guess) or electric. I have no idea what became of it. I do have the small, custom made birch desk he used to sit at. I hope I can find a good home for it.

Petalique, I think the vintage borrowed elec Smith Corona that was here went to Goodwill when it's owner didn't want it back, admittedly its been a few years now - Goodwill happily took it then 😊

I think my all time fav was an electric IBM Selectric.

I took an office procedures class in high school and honesty cannot remember if our typewriters were electric or not. I do remember inserting a sheet of carbon paper for making a CC copy. And operating a mimeograph 'ditto' copier. My first part time after school job, there were Xerox! And what blessing they were.

I did originally learn to type on a completely manual typewriter though, what a workout those manual machines could be. My mother had one for years, taught herself to type on it. I don't remember what became of it - maybe I'll ask my sister, she might know.

If no one wants them as typewriters, I’ll be there are certain artists who might find the parts useful. I’ve seen people make art and jewelry out of various things.

I keep thinking I might glue a portable phone onto one of our bird houses.

I used to collect vintage manual typewriters but eventually gave them away. (I did a major purge four years ago before downsizing to an apartment in Manhattan.) I used them as decoration all over the house.

I learned to type as a high school freshman on a manual typewriter in 1986. Our typing teacher was in love with a man named Cortez something-or-other, who was the fastest typer in the world. She'd get all hot and bothered tell us stories about having met him.

For my bat mitzvah I got a Brother typewriter that took diskettes and had a tiny flip up screen that showered three sentences at a time. It was fantastic. I'm a writer and total nerd.

I have my grandfather’s Underwood Manual typewriter, circa 1940’s? We also have DH’s manual Hermes from the late 1960’s. My Underwood is on display because i love the vintage look.

Grapefruit1, I would enjoy seeing photos if you want t oblige. Yes, there is something so beautiful about some of these vintage machines.

ETA — I am a geek. I couldn’t wait and had to go searching

I love the Hermes at this link ➡️ https://typewriterdatabase.com/1964-hermes-3000.1825.typewriter

I took typing in high school. The classroom had the electric IBM type with the ball..

My parents bought me a portable electric Brother typewriter for writing essays and I loved it. Unfortunately, the carrying case was a poor design. It had a lid that attached to typewriter. The handle was attached to the lid and not to the typewriter. One day, I neglected to latch it properly, grabbed the case, and the typewriter fell to the floor and I was left hanging onto the lid. 😕

My grandfather always sent us letters from abroad that were typewritten. He was a doctor and his handwriting was illegible. 🤷‍♀️ He lived up to the stereotype.

I have jewelry made from typewriter keys.

Love the vintage typewriters from the 30s and early 40s. Mom had a Remington (don't know the model) she could go to town on. I believe it was given to her as a teen, or maybe it belonged to a famliy member, but it was definitely not a brand new model when she received. I always thought it was the coolest thing and piddled with it often.

I also learned to type in HS on a manual. Much easier to type on than Mom's.

Our school didn't teach typing for years. It was not considered a suitable subject for academic kids. When it did start up we were discouraged from taking it because we'd risk ending up as typists if interviewers learned about it. Consequently I've never learned to type properly and never owned a typewriter other than a small manual portable borrowed from my mother for university. She wasn't taught to type at school either but learned at evening classes.

An aunt gave me this small Royal, with its case, many years ago when I was a teenager. She had used it herself, but was getting rid of stuff and knew I was an aspiring writer. Excuse the dust.

My dad took typing in high school, 1940s. So when he joined the army near the end of the war, and the forms asked about his skills, he filled in ”typing”. So he was made a clerk. After the war he used his typing at university, then went into and then ran the family business after the war. Typed his own correspondence until he couldn’t.

Typing and the other topics covered in my own high school class served me well through college, several different careers, and even now on this weird virtual keyboard.

But back to typewriters, I think I would use one now, except it requires a certain height, and not on my lap.

I got a portable German typewriter in HS. Can't remember the name. Like Petalique, I got lazy when learnng to type in summer school before HS and still have to hunt for the numerals and symbols on a computer. It's good to be reminded we were once foolish children!

When I was in Junior High School, we were given a choice of taking a language or typing, but not both. Only the girls who wanted to be secretaries took typing. In college, I used to write everything by hand and then (slowly) type it. I did this in journalism classes with end-of-the-class deadlines! Graduated, got a job as a copywriter, and after they heard me hunting and pecking, they sent me to typing classes. In between owning a Selectric and a computer, I had a Brother portable word processer, which I loved! It had a memory, a small selection of fonts and the keyboard was a pleasure. I think I might still be using it if it hadn't broken.

I don't anymore. I didn't learn to touch type until my last summer in college. Pages and pages of jf jf jkl, etc. All the term papers with footnotes where I would read a phrase, type with two fingers, repeat.

I had a job in England with an engineering firm. We had IBM Executives. They used proportional type where each letter, number, and symbol had a certain value. When you backspaced you had to hit the backspace key however many times the total value of the space covered. I kinda loved it, words and math. It was a real challenge to align things vertically.

Kendrah mentioned Cortez. There are 2 ways people learn to type. You can learn to type letter by letter when typing or you can type word by word when typing. Cortez was a fast typist who typed letter by letter when he saw a paragraph. He did not read a paragraph as words.

I learned to type by reading paragraphs as words. I was a typing teacher for over 30 years. I had to teach Cortez as part of the typing program. Yet I never typed that way myself.

The Adler model-whatever that dad bought when I was in high school typing class is in a closet at mom's house. Also a much older (black) Royal? is on a display shelf in her that he bought at a church parish picnic, or it came from grandpa.

I placed between 1st and 3rd (honestly don't remember which) in UIL typing at district competition, then again the next year.

I am so sad that I never learned to type. I went to a girls' school in the 1960s and we were not taught typing. I did, however, learn to write well among other things. In college, it took me longer to type a paper than it did to write one.

It’s fun to read your typewriter tales.

I cannot imagine handwriting all those reports and papers in college and since withou a typewriter or knowing how to type a bit, at least.

Lily, I searched a bit online for Typewriter jewelry. As I suspected, it’s largely made from the really nice vintage keys. But there may be possibilities for the letter and character arms — earring?

Chisue: ”It's good to be reminded we were once foolish children!”

Bunny, I hadn’t heard of the IBM executive. That design makes sense, to assign each letter a space value. You can use the number of desired backspaces to, for example, bring V and A a little closer together so the base of the A is slightly under the top of the V (kerning).

I worked in an office later that used an IBM composition system called DCF. It was code-driven, so you typed codes, kind of like in programming, to change, for example, to italics until you change back. Or to layout the page, give it all kinds of ”if-then” definitions. Since it was all typed, my typing skills came in very handy. When the mouse came in to do a oot of tasks, I ws still more comfortable using the keyboard, drop-down menus, function keys, etc, not to mention faster than those who switched to the mouse.

We are going through all the old papers going back to the 1950s, and it is amazing how much is typed by hand. With carbons. And no mistakes.

bpath, the Executive didn't really do kerning (a term I didn't know at the time). Both A and V had the same values, 4 for uppercase, 3 for lower. If you backspaced 1 you would have them overlapping.

Like some of the other posters I was discouraged from learning how to type. If a female learned to type you would become a secretary. Learned to type when I was in school learning to be a paralegal. Used a typewriter with a memory so I could go back and fix mistakes or enhance documents before turning them in. Everything going to court had to be typed. Shortly after graduating from paralegal training I got a job as a paralegal because I told the lawyer that I knew how to use an IBM PC. (I learned quickly.) If I couldn't type I could not have faked my way through knowing how to use a PC.

Now they aren't teaching kids how to write cursive - no need for it.

Times change. . .

If you were interviewing for a job or had one, you were usually wise not to feveal that you knew what a typewriter was if you were female. Unless maybe, you wanted to do secretarial work, needed a job, or it was a way to get a foot into a place where you wanted to work.

Too bad about the cursive writing; although, if you saw my penmanship….

I think people can get higher pay if they can read cursive.

Can you read a topo map? A geological map?

Can youread people’s minds? Dog or cat minds?

Fortune cookies?

Richard Feynman’s notebooks?

I bought a Royal portable in carrying case when in university in the late '40s.

I used it for years until perhaps 20 years ago when I got a computer.

When looking at some of the last typing that I'd done, a few days ago, I noticed that the "d" was placed a few mm above the other letters, and remembered how it had done that in the latter days of using it.

It"s around here somwhere - will need to be discarded as I continue decluttering prior to moving from this old farmhouse to an (apt.?) in the nearby city.

I'm on a bit of a short leash, as lacking a car for over three years and a licelicence for more than two, how much longer will I have health and inclination to hitchhike to town?

(I assure you that, so far as I'm aware I don't have ("lice") - but here at Houzz when I try to amend, the editor reduplicates part of what I wrote, from a letter or part of a word ... to a couple of lines, or !

more ...

... and when I first wrote the "more" - forgot to hit "space" and "return" - so it disappeared!!

.... DRAT!!).

ole joyful

P.S. Moving to town will at least double my rent, and I'm thankful that I can manage that for at least 10 - 15 years ... and when one is starting from 96, in less than a week, that looks like a reasonable time frame.

Next Thursday, on my birthday, it's my turn to take treats to the old guys' coffee hour at the cchchuchurchurcchurch in the village nearby - only one church of our brand in that village.

o j

You can sell that Royal to an artsy craftsperson, OJ.

Or give to thrift store. But, with no wheels, a Royal pain in the buttfor you. I am sorry that it is very challenging for you to get transportation. If I lived nearby, I would be delighted to help you get from here to there. I’d even left you snack in the car.

Holy typewriters! you are going to turn 96 next Thursday, 30th January?! I’ll be!

I am losing my hair and grey matter fast, I will never make it to 96. I will wish you a very happy and cake-rich birthday now, before I forget.

HAPPY happy HAPPY Birthday to a wonderful fun and smart and decent forum friend!

Greetings, folks.

Petalique offered me birthday greetings on my birthday ...

... and about 45 others joined in.

It was my turn to take treats to coffee hour for old guys in the village church nearby - and the minister brought a 3-layer birthday cake - yum!

Some of the leftovers I took are being enjoyed here.

The non-thrilling story of my day is included there.

ole joyfuelled

When I applied for a job at the furniture company that hired me in 1989, they gave me a typing test, and fortunately I was very good at typing. I had brought my design portfolio to the interviews, and they never looked at it, but I wanted the job because my interest was furniture design.

Eventually, I got them to recognize my design skills, but I would not have gotten the job if I had not been good at typing. Part of my job was typing work orders for the work rooms and writing order acknowledgements for clients. I used an IBM Selectric with memory, and so I would type on a dummy sheet, where I could make corrections, if necessary, and then I would insert five-ply forms for the final version. I was much happier when we could enter all of this information into a database instead.

When we did get computers at work (I was the first one to get one), I taught myself dBase III Plus programming so that I could manage databases that I created. No one at work seemed to appreciate this skill that I acquired or realize how difficult it was, but they did like the results.

I would love to have coffee and cake with you, ole joyful!

Lars, that’s a good story. You are a very resourceful and enterprising person.

My little grey cells finally located the brand of my late 1950's portable German made typewriter. It was an Adler -- a compact grey machine with a satisfying action and sound. People didn't like some of the early IBM machines (PC's?) because the keys were silent -- and they said they looked like Chickets.

This is pretty crazy-but my DD just texted me that the vintage typewriter repair shop in Cambridge just contacted her about picking up the typewriter she dropped off there 4-5 years ago. Said it’s repaired and needs to be picked up by March 1 since they’re closing. She lives in VT now but is planning to pick it up next weekend!

I want to know the details teeda! model typewriter? What she owes them?

The shop has a great reputation, and look how they contacted her after many years.

I can't wait to find out the details as well petalique! I remember being with her when she dropped it off, but don't remember what model it was. I know it was vintage and she got it at a thrift store. We looked it up and it seemed valuable and worth repairing. Then life went crazy with Covid and grandchildren and I totally forgot about it. I agree that it is quite remarkable that the shop kept her repaired typewrite all these years and followed up with her before the closing. I will update you with all the details once she picks it up. If for some reason she can't get there, I'm going to ask my DSIL to get it as he works in Cambridge.

Petalique, DD picked up her typewriter in Cambridge today. It’s the Smith Corona Sterling as shown in the photo. I also added another photo she shared of some beautiful machines awaiting pick up.

She dropped the typewriter off for repair 6 years ago. The owner said the cost of repairs has increased 50% since but only charged her the price at drop off — $90.

Between storing the typewriter for 6 years and honoring the original repair cost, I can see why the community is so sad to see this business end!

I have a few typewriters. In my office I have an IBM Selectric, because sometimes it is just quicker to print and type the paper form than to edit the PDF. And anyway I wanted an excuse to have a Selectric, that which I dreamed of so much when I was in law school, laboriously typing 30 page papers on an old Smith-Corona.

I also have a manual Hermes Ambassador, dating from the 1950s, that a friend sent me as a gift. https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co37770/hermes-ambassador-typewriter

How did that happen? Well, his father had been a pastor, and typed his sermons, and his book, on the Hermes in their home. My friend told me he grew up with the thwack thwack of the Hermes’ keys as the soundtrack to his childhood. He inherited his father’s typewriter, and kept it through his long career as an international business lawyer with long stints in Asia and then teaching law in Vancouver BC. One day he asked me for my address, and a few weeks later the Hermes arrived in the post, heavily packaged and weighing easily 50 lbs. My friend explained that he was just getting rid of his father’s old things. Less than a year later, he was dead from, as it turned out, his fourth battle with bladder cancer. I believe he knew it would be his last dance, and was bequeathing his most prized possessions to persons who he knew would appreciate them. I did a considerable amount of sleuthing, and found who his father was, and then tracked down a copy of his father’s book, that now sits on my bookshelf with the Hermes upon which it was written, which I do appreciate and reminds me of my friend “Dottore“ whenever I look at it.

DD has a tiny portable typewriter, a Hermes ”Baby” https://www.classictypewriter.com/hermes-baby-rocket 

Baby is her travel typewriter and currently lives in Marseilles.

Between the diminutive Baby/Rocket and the massive Ambassador is a middle-sized Hermes, the “3000”, which we do not have. Yet.

Thanks for sharing the story of your Hermes typwriter. So special, it and the book together.

Recently I was in a local antique that I frequent. The number of typewriters present! I spotted at least six. Neither of us remember seeing typewriters there before.