Behold my first typewriter!
Or was it my brother's? He often got the high tech stuff first, being the oldest.
Favourable features:
1) held paper
2) stamped real ink onto said paper!
Apparently keys were too much to ask for. Instead you turned a dial to select a letter, then pushed down on one large (key-like?) button.
During a Kijiji search, I came across several of them for sale.
Hey! I thought—as the faintest trace of a memory bubbled up—I had one of those!
Don't ask if mine had Mickey Mouse or some other character on its sleek, sophisticated letter wheel. I have no recollection of that whatsoever.
The yearning for keys must have gotten the better of me, eventually—or was it that we broke the darn thing? Again, older brother (if you know what I mean)—but when Tomy's Tutor Typer arrived under the Christmas tree a couple years later, I was ecstatic.
Were keys a safety issue back in the day? Tomy Tutor's were a bust too. Don't get me wrong, they were there, and they moved, but they didn't work independently. When you pressed any letter to the left of (and including) t, g, and b, all keys on the left hand side depressed. Same thing when you pressed y, h or n - those and the rest of the keys on the right depressed at the same time. The space bar worked independently, but come on already!
Gone were the paper and ink. Replaced by a reel-like mechanism that was held inside the carriage behind a clear plastic shield of sorts, you had to bang away on the conjoined keys. Then—surprise, surprise—a letter (along with a word representing that letter) was revealed. From 'A is for apple' to 'Z is for zebra'. In that order only.
Returning the carriage to its original position turned a dial, which moved the reel, revealing the next letter. Bang, bang, bang, bang. B is for Bell. Bang, bang, bang, bang. C is for Cow. And so on.
Nonetheless, while noisy, it was a learning tool. Age appropriate? You've got me there. After all, how is one to type a letter, when one doesn't know their actual letters?
It too was eventually outgrown.
Then one wondrous, magical Christmas morn, many years later, what should arrive under the tree? The most beautiful thing I had ever set eyes upon (well, at least at the time).
A real typewriter! With functional keys! Paper! And ink!
Naturally, it came complete with a carrying case (for all the trips I would be making from my bedroom to the kitchen table to the desk in the basement).
What was I writing back then? Probably nothing too sophisticated (although I may have argued that point back then).
I like to think (and hope) my writing has evolved, just as the tools I use have. So what am I writing these days?
Drum roll please...
I managed to squeak out the final pages of my middle grade novel before the end of 2021.
I had it printed and bound at Staples and it's currently in my desk drawer...lying dormant? Hibernating? Fermenting?
Meanwhile, I've been on sabbatical—taking a restorative break, away from the material.
Over the next few days, I'll be diving back in. Revisions, edits and general improvements will be necessary so that my story doesn't appear to be something written back in the day of my ancient Petite Typewriter (above).
I wasn't sure what to do to celebrate my accomplishment, but I had to do something. I mean, I actually wrote a book! From beginning to end!!! Feeling nostalgic, I searched Kijiji and found just the thing to reward myself with.
A T Y P E W R I T E R !!!
For a whopping $25, the beauty you see below is now mine.
I doubt I'll write my next book on it, but who knows? I'll at least enjoy clack, clack, clacking out some letters to friends who live in far away lands from time to time.
Seems, that's just the TYPE of girl I am!