08/22 - Uncommon Type

[Meredith]

Uncommon Type: Some Stories

Discuss the August selection here.

[Meredith]

So, we discovered that short stories don't generate a lot of discussion. We still had a lot of support at the meeting. 17 people made appearances (some couldn't stay for the whole meeting) to talk about Uncommon Type.

Tom Hanks was not in attendance.

Snacks were just regular stuff that we wanted to eat. Christine brought Oreos because they were mentioned in one of the stories (and they're always a hit).

I'm glad we put it on the list but it didn't change my mind that short stories are ... hit or miss.

[Christine]

I completely forgot to ask the most obvious questions during the discussion today! Did anyone learn to type on an actual typewriter? And do you have any memories of typewriters in your life?

For me, I learned to type on an electric typewriter in 9th grade typing class. The left shift key didnt work on the machine I was assigned and to this day I don't use the left shift key properly half of the time.
As for a memory of a typewriter, my grandparents had a typewriter in their garage (really more of a big mudroom) that my sister, cousin, and I would mess around with sometimes. I bet it is still there. I'll check when we visit in a couple of weeks.

Share your stories in the comments.

[Lee]

You were lucky to learn on an electric typewriter. In high school, my typing class was on the old manual ones. Highlights included: feeding the paper in just right so that it was straight ...even harder when you were putting in 2 pieces of paper and a carbon paper, to make a copy (cc:=carbon copy) of what you were typing; that damned manual return arm thing; learning to replace the ribbon; learning to backspace and use some kind of white paper, I think, to erase/type over a letter when you screwed up (white out had not been invented); if you typed too fast, the keys would jam. Ah, those were the days.
Lee

[Meredith]

My mother was a secretary and knew how to type. We had an electric typewriter for as long as I can remember. I loved the purring sound it made when it was switched on. Any schoolwork that needed to be typed up, I hand wrote it and my mother typed it for me. I was terrible at writing while in school. She probably thought I was a moron based on how infantile my papers were.

I knew how to type, though. It didn't take any effort to be comfortable once I started using computers.

I think we also had an older manual typewriter, too. I definitely remember the metal arm to return. To erase, you used something like "white out tape." You'd back up and stick the tape between the paper and keys and hit the letter again. It was never a perfect match, so you'd always see that a correction had been made.

Good memories. I started using computers off and on in the 4th grade, which was right as personal computers were becoming commercially available.