Working Daze by John Zakour and Scott Roberts for October 21, 2023

It’s a manual word processor.

That looks exactly like the typewriter I learned to type on.

Jeez. Any real geek his age should know what a typewriter is.

Microsoft Word 1.0

Where is the ‘Alt’ key?

It’s a Woodstock; I wrote all of my high school papers with that one.

Mine was an Underwood.

I still have the Royal portable typewriter my parents got for me in 1962. I keep it in its original case, and it still works fine with regular cleaning. Thanks to the internet, new ribbons for it are easy to find and quite inexpensive.

Going to garage sale is often like taking a trip back in time.

I once had a typewriter that could take a sheet of paper in landscape mode…

A high tec No. 2 pencil. Later, electric. And we are tethered to a wall. And tripping more.

i still got my electric one

The story I have heard about how the QWERTY keyboard came to be was the typists on the first typewriters were too fast and kept jamming the machine. the QWERTY keyboard was invented to slow them down.

Looks like a 1915 Underwood Standard. I had one that my mother had used in her business.

It was second hand then.

I like the box with the “VHS tapes no one wants” sign on it.

I have a few of those myself. :D

I learned on my mom’s pre-WWII portable. Later I had an early ’50s office typewriter.

C’mon… It’s an Enigma machine!

it also looks like my computer keyboard i currently use, but Roy probably was confused how it was attached to a thingamabob …

Back in ’62 in Radioman “A” school I could not type faster than 28 words a minute…But I qualified at copying Morse Code and typing at 32 words a minute…I had to go to “night school” to qualify for the required thirty words a minute.I got a commendation for being able to copy code at 32 word a minute….Try it someday…it becomes almost like speech…

LOL, I was thinking about those just a few comics ago, when reading comments from people complaining about texting and how hard it was to use computers. I’m in the middle of my seventh decade. I certainly know what those machines are. I took typing class in high school. I hated those machines then, and I still do. I was forever getting my fingers stuck between the keys. Getting my first Apple ( a IIe – decades ago,) was a godsend. I could finally stop using a pad and pencil. Not all old folks eschew technology.

Actually, it’s a new computer that has the printer and keyboard all in one unit. No more waiting for your print request to queue up.

I miss my old typewriter.

Early on in high school (class of ’74) I took a typing class, not realizing at the time just how smart that move actually was.

I originally took the class for several reasons:

1 – I was the only boy in a classroom of girls… 8^)

2 – typing my work in other classes improved my grades in those classes

3 – and typing was much quicker and easier than writing “the old fashioned way”

4 – plus turning in the typed work from other classes got me extra credit in the typing class

After I finished high school and went in to the Air Force I found those typing skills to be quite useful. Then, half way thru my military career, I switched jobs and as a computer programmer those typing skills became even more valuable.

After I retired from the service I went on to work as a system and network admin and the typing skills I initially learned in high school continued to be extremely useful in my career.

Given how computers have overtaken society I can’t imagine how anyone could opt to not take a typing class at some point in their education. It is a skill well worth learning. But then I also took some other optional classes that I saw a longer term use for, like accounting. Never regretted those choices.

Yes, those were the days… Learning to type on a typewriter was a real workout for your fingers. My last official typing speed was 40 wpm at 98% accuracy, but that was decades ago.

And while I can certainly appreciate keyboards and laptops, there will always be a place in my heart for the typewriter, along with pen and paper.

I’d buy that for a dollar.

I LOVE my typewriter.