Boy this takes me back. I went to work for IBM in Lexington, KY in 1979. My first job there paid $183/week and I placed typewriter parts into a plastic bin rolling down an assembly line toward the people who assembled the selectric typewriters. I was later promoted to an assembly position where I spent the next 6 years building Selectric typewriters while learning to be a programmer in the evenings. I’m always shocked when I run across one of those typewriters and your essay on it supports my belief that many are still out there whirring away and capable of functioning the way we built them to!
This brought a tear to my eye! Thank you for sharing your piece of the Selectric history. To get to know the mechanics of the machine has been a total delight and fills me with awe for the folks who put it together.
I’d love to know more about what it was like to be building typewriters by day and learning to program at night. An embodiment of paradigm shift!
Your essay hums like the Selectric itself, steady and alive! I love how you embrace the typewriter not as nostalgia but as resistance, a way to reclaim slowness in a world that constantly demands reaction. As someone who also writes to think, I felt this piece in my bones. (But, no, I do not write on a typewriter, because I’m a nomad.)
Thank you! I've been eyeing some modern day devices that serve a similar function in terms of simplicity and focus in anticipation of being on the road for a few weeks next year. It's been funny to go from no typewriter to not imagining a day without one!
Loved this, and it also reminded me of the visceral reaction I had recently while watching a video of someone using one of those old sliding credit card machines. The sound! (And thanks for the link to our fragrance story at the end!)
Those carbon copy machines are epic, and also such a wild gamble when you look back. Like, taking a rubbing of each person's plastic rectangle was an adequate form of payment?
I once collected vintage manual typewriters. They conjured up visions of Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and fueled my romantic fantasies. I enjoyed the click clack of the keys until the constant use of white out became wearisome.
They looked cool when displayed on my desk and tables. After accumulating cat hairs, dust, and other debris they became popular yard sale items.
Love this, thanks for sharing. I grew up in the 90s, so had a computer already once it was time to learn. But my sisters and I used to pull out our mom's old typewriter to "play" with and we had so much fun. I remember how satisfying the clickity-clack of the keys was with every word we typed.
I'm excited about the return to analog movement I've seen growing. Physical media and machines that help us slow down and be present... We need this.
Thank you for expressing my thoughts on the Selectric AND the nether world of computers which have now taken over our world. I do miss the clack, clack, clack of my trusty companion.
Analog rocks. I learned to type on an IBM Selectric in high school. Smartest elective choice I ever made. Your typewriter will save you! And if it were a manual it would come in very handy when the lights go out.
I love it so much! I brought it across the country with it recently because it has become such a part of my routine. WAY less portable than a laptop, but makes me feel at home.
Boy this takes me back. I went to work for IBM in Lexington, KY in 1979. My first job there paid $183/week and I placed typewriter parts into a plastic bin rolling down an assembly line toward the people who assembled the selectric typewriters. I was later promoted to an assembly position where I spent the next 6 years building Selectric typewriters while learning to be a programmer in the evenings. I’m always shocked when I run across one of those typewriters and your essay on it supports my belief that many are still out there whirring away and capable of functioning the way we built them to!
This brought a tear to my eye! Thank you for sharing your piece of the Selectric history. To get to know the mechanics of the machine has been a total delight and fills me with awe for the folks who put it together.
I’d love to know more about what it was like to be building typewriters by day and learning to program at night. An embodiment of paradigm shift!
Your essay hums like the Selectric itself, steady and alive! I love how you embrace the typewriter not as nostalgia but as resistance, a way to reclaim slowness in a world that constantly demands reaction. As someone who also writes to think, I felt this piece in my bones. (But, no, I do not write on a typewriter, because I’m a nomad.)
Thank you! I've been eyeing some modern day devices that serve a similar function in terms of simplicity and focus in anticipation of being on the road for a few weeks next year. It's been funny to go from no typewriter to not imagining a day without one!
Loved this, and it also reminded me of the visceral reaction I had recently while watching a video of someone using one of those old sliding credit card machines. The sound! (And thanks for the link to our fragrance story at the end!)
Those carbon copy machines are epic, and also such a wild gamble when you look back. Like, taking a rubbing of each person's plastic rectangle was an adequate form of payment?
The trust level alone!
I haven’t even read it yet, but I’m hearing that now!! 😳
I once collected vintage manual typewriters. They conjured up visions of Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and fueled my romantic fantasies. I enjoyed the click clack of the keys until the constant use of white out became wearisome.
They looked cool when displayed on my desk and tables. After accumulating cat hairs, dust, and other debris they became popular yard sale items.
Love this, thanks for sharing. I grew up in the 90s, so had a computer already once it was time to learn. But my sisters and I used to pull out our mom's old typewriter to "play" with and we had so much fun. I remember how satisfying the clickity-clack of the keys was with every word we typed.
I'm excited about the return to analog movement I've seen growing. Physical media and machines that help us slow down and be present... We need this.
YES!!!
Thank you for expressing my thoughts on the Selectric AND the nether world of computers which have now taken over our world. I do miss the clack, clack, clack of my trusty companion.
I love this essay. Write on! If you haven't seen the wonderful 2016 documentary California Typewriter, check it out.
Ooh! My curiosity is piqued. Thanks for the tip!
https://youtu.be/fkxR26GlxAI?si=MZ7_wsYhyzqNNg46
Ok, I cheered out loud at the end of that trailer. "The revolution will be typewritten". YEAH!
I feel this way about writing by hand...I love the sound the fountain pen makes on my notebook.
This is really amazing. Another thing we lost to the internet.
I was born when analog typewriters were already called antics, so I have never seen one in real life or knew somebody who still uses it.
Ironically, I bought mine on ebay. I guess what the internet takes it also returns one day.
Analog rocks. I learned to type on an IBM Selectric in high school. Smartest elective choice I ever made. Your typewriter will save you! And if it were a manual it would come in very handy when the lights go out.
I love it so much! I brought it across the country with it recently because it has become such a part of my routine. WAY less portable than a laptop, but makes me feel at home.
I admire your commitment!