Poll: Do you have a typewriter?

[MineralMan]

45. Yes, I have a 1948 Royal Quiet Deluxe portable typewriter.

I found it in a trashcan near Syracuse University in 1966, when I was at a USAF total immersion Russian Language course. I took it back to the barracks. It didn't work properly. Sticky keys, etc. So, I looked up a typewriter repair shop. It cost me $35 for a cleaning and adjustment.

That old typewriter followed me around the country, to Turkey, and back. It went with me when I returned to college after my enlistment. It produced all of the papers an English Major and grad student had to write.

Later, it produced manuscripts as I started on my career as a magazine writer. I used it every day. I got if fixed a couple of more times. Finally, in 1984, I gave it a last cleaning and adjustment and put it, in it's case, on a shelf. It still travels with me, but never gets used. In 1984, I got me first IBM PC clone computer and a daisy wheel printer. Everything after that was written in Microsoft Word and printed, if necessary, for submission. Before long, everything went to publishers online.

So, the old typewriter is still on a shelf, in its case. It still works. It's hard to get ribbons for it now, and I don't use it any more. But, it got me through years and years of writing, so it has a special place in my heart and my home.