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It’s been sometime since I last posted a blog. I had major computer troubles. Words simply cannot describe what has gone on this past week. Suffice it to say that my computer gave up the ghost and I had to have another one built. I mentioned my friend who has been my go-to guy for computer problems. He literally burned the midnight oil this past week and was able to retrieve all my data and transfer the files onto this new machine. I can’t thank him enough for solving my problem and getting me back up and running once again.
In a past blog, I mentioned that he was also the one who was able to save my data when my computer burst into flames. This problem he solved was just as bad. Anytime I’m without a computer to do my work I consider a disaster. It makes me yearn for the days before computers.
In my home is the old ‘Remington‘ typewriter my father once owned. This machine would be considered an antique today, but the ribbon has a little life left in it still and, if you’re careful, you can still type out a letter or document. It may not be as clean as one printed out on a laser printer, but it’s still functional. This was the typewriter that my father used to write letters and do his reports for the Air Force club he was president and treasurer for when I was growing up. He used it when he brought work home from the office. This was the typewriter I borrowed to do my school projects on. It was also the machine that I first used when I had ambitions to one day become a writer. I cant’t tell you how many late nights I spent punching away at the keys developing storylines. I was a one-finger typist in those days. It was a noisy machine. All typewriters were noisy in those days. I remember walking by the typing class in my high school. The noise coming out of that room echoed down the halls. It was also the first sound that greeted you if you were called down to the office.
I learned how to type a little better in a radio newsroom I watched the newsmen attacking the keys writing the stories they would use during their hourly newscasts. Most of them typed with two fingers. It didn’t take me long to learn how to also use two fingers to type with. Old habits die hard, and I’m still comfortable being a two-fingered typist.
Much later in my career, I bought my first electric typewriter. In another radio newsroom I watched the news personnel use these large machined with the little spinning heads that made the keystrokes through the ribbon and onto the paper. I thought this was the wave of the future. The machine was relatively quiet, compared to the old typewriters I was used to, and I didn’t have to press has hard on the keys. I bought myself a small, portable machine with its own carrying case. No matter where I was, I could have access to a typewriter. Ribbons were always expensive and didn’t last very long. Occasionally, I would need to take the machine into the shop to be cleaned and repaired. Thankfully, most of the repairs were minor in nature. You didn’t need a specialist to try to retrieve your data from a typewriter.
Do you remember how we corrected spelling mistake? ‘White-out’ was a very popular product. After it dried, we would have to line up the mistake and re-type the right letter. There was even a strip that could be inserted that allowed you to correct your spelling errors. Old black-and-white movies showed writers ripping pages off the roller and tossing them into the wastebasket filled with crumpled pages. Computers have saved a lot of trees.
The last electric typewriter I owned before switching to a computer even had a small screen and some rudimentary memory. I could print on the small screen, and look at what was going to be printed on the page before it performed that function. It seemed so archaic when computers arrived in the office and for use at home.
Now I wonder how I ever did this show without one. In the past, I needed to pour through files and books looking for ideas and quotes, and then typing them onto the page. Now it’s a simple matter of accessing files on the computer and cutting and pasting. Over the past week, I learned to ‘cut and paste’ in the ‘real’ world.
I now have the latest generation of technology and software to work with. Throughout the day today I’ve been stumbling around learning the ins and outs of this new computer. And nearby is my father’s old ‘Remington’ and one of my electric typewriters in its carrying case. Over the past week, you don’t know how close I came to inserting a sheet of paper in one of them and seeing if I could remember how it used to work.
We would be well advised to find an old typewriter and some ribbon in an antique shop or on-line and keep it as a back-up. If it crashes, it’s because it’s been dropped on the floor. The on my father owned could survive. I’m not so sure about this new computer….
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Don Jackson
