And they're shutting all the typewriter factories down

A typewriter, for you youngsters, looks much like a computer. However, in place of a screen on which your typed words and other things appear, the typewriter has a spot for its user to slide in a piece of paper. Each time you press a key on the typewriter, a bar would pop up and strike a mark on the paper. Once you were finished typing, you would pull the paper out, look it over, and then usually throw it away and start over because of all the mistakes you made.

Many of you will never get to experience the joy of typewriters, because they aren't making any more:

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1380383/Godrej-Boyce-Worlds-typewriter-factory-closes-doors-Mumbai.html#ixzz1KZoKhmb3

Well, unless you're in jail, which I would bet 1% of this board's population will wind up.

http://www.minyanville.com/dailyfeed/2011/04/25/contrary-to-reports-typewriter-industry/

 

Learned to type on a big old non-electric model in grade 9. The keys were blank so we typed "frf" "juj" over and over.

When I was in university, had to type ALL my essays because my handwriting was illegible.

 

Apropos of something, Tom Hanks is probably rushed. He's a hardcore collector of typewriters.

God, remember having to push that lever at the end of each line?

 

My parents got me an electric typewriter for my bar mitzvah gift. This typewriter had a so-called amazing correction button to erase mistakes. It was touted that you no longer had to use white-out.

Only, half the time, it wouldn't erase anything, or only erase half the letter. It was a pain in the butt.

 

I do. I also remember my Mom typing my papers in junior high school. Click clack click clack. Inevitably, I wouldn't get her my rough draft until 9 pm the night before it was due, and we would end up yelling at each other.

 

We had an old-school manual typewriter. My parents upgraded to an electric by the time I was in high school.

We also had a Commodore 64 that was used up until I started eighth grade and moved on to using the high school computer lab.

 

Nothing worse then proofing your paper over and over -- then seeing the error right as you pulled it out of the roller.

There was no way to line up the paper and, as TSP said, you had to start over.

 

I want a clear typewriter. But I don't want to go to prison to get it.

 

I'm going to type every word I know!

 

IBM Selectric, typing class in high school. Dropped it after two weeks to get another study hall with which to goof off. So now I'm an index finger hunt-and-peck fiend.

 

Found one...

http://www.swintec.com/clear-typewriters/243-2416dm-64k-cc-washington-state.html

I can also get the New York State version, but it allows for far fewer stored characters (64,000 v. 7,000...I guess New York prisoners write shorter letters.)

 

Cue Sunday editorials by local small town editors who still type out their columns on an old Royal lamenting the demise of typewriters - which will have to be input into the system by some lowly copy editor.