Typewriters- Anyone remember using them? Still using one?

typewriters - typewriters-do you still have one?
United States
February 13, 2007 1:50pm CST
I recently ran across the very first resume that I typed shortly before graduating from college. I got a bit nostalgia looking at that paper and some other college assignments I had typed on an electric typewriter during my college days. Actually that resume was the last thing that I typed on a typewriter..some 15 years ago......what about you? Do you still have a ribbon or electric typewriter that you use or just keep as a collectible? Anything you miss or don't miss about them?
18 people like this
64 responses
@maribel1218 (3085)
• Philippines
13 Feb 07
Hi mckenziemom! Welcome to myLot and congratulation to your 9 star that was a good start! I remember using a typewriter wayback in elementary days when we do have assignments and some school reports and made my finger sore just to finished a certain page. One summer when I went home to my province just recently I saw a typewriter that is still functioning well and they really use it for a community report and that was in the office of certain government employee that still they don't have funds to buy a computer that's why up to know they are still using typewriters. Honestly I dont really miss using typewriter for it keep reminding me of my sore finger when I do some school reports lol!
4 people like this
• United States
13 Feb 07
Thank you for the friendly welcome. Wow that is something that some offices are still using typewriters. It has been something like 15 years since I have typed on a typewriter. I don't miss having sore fingers from typing either!!!
2 people like this
@mssnow (9484)
• United States
14 Feb 07
Typewriter?? Whats that??. I think I saw one of those once, in my moms closet. It looked kinda like a computer keyboard only without the computer. It was very strange and I found out that if you make mistake on one, You cant backspace and change the letter. You can strike over it but that looks messy!! I guess that is what that stuff at the store called white out is for? Oh well those days are gone now. It's kinda like the wringer washer. Gone but not forgotten.
3 people like this
@Bee1955 (3882)
• United States
14 Feb 07
Har-de-har-har-har!
2 people like this
13 Feb 07
I don't miss the darn daisy wheel or the ribbon or the darn corrective ribbon. I wish printer ribbons where as cheap as our old ribbons though. Ouch! remember trying to get my pinkie or baby finger tough enough to hit, the keys, it used to slip off and get trapped under a key :( very painful. The earliest electric typewriters where noisey and when they carriage returned they used to shake the whole darn desk Olivetti. Smith Corona was too sensitive and the keys where too soft and you just had to touch t and you had tttttttttttttttttttttt and you had to correct that! I wouldn't go back but I wish printer ribbons where cheaper, 32 pounds for a darn cartridge :(
• United States
13 Feb 07
I couldn't remember before what brand typewriter my parents had before...but from your description it sounds like it was a Smith Corona!!!
2 people like this
@howard96h (11640)
• New York, New York
13 Feb 07
I remember in the family was a ROYAL typewriter. Don't miss it at all. The messy ribbon, stinky whiteout, the keys jamming, it was so loud the neighbors always knew when you were typing a letter. Hitting the keys too hard would make a hole in the paper and try adding a sheet of carbon paper to make a copy of the letter, what a mess. We really have come a long way.
3 people like this
• United States
13 Feb 07
Ditto for me..don't miss them a bit. That's funny I can't even the remember the brand of typewriter my paren't had at home. I do remember that I was no good at using that correction tape. Thank goodness for progress.
3 people like this
• United States
14 Feb 07
hello, before i got my computer in 1999, i needed something to type on for class assignments and reports i had to do in 5th/6th grade. my brother was getting married shortly, and i guess he didnt really need his brother typewriter anymore so he gave it to me. it was an electric one, and it had spell check and everything. i used to love it, i thought it was awesome! after i got my first computer in 6th grade in 99, i kinda gave up on my typewriter since it was easier to use. but, every now and then, i pull it out of the box and write my boyfriend funny letters and all. sometimes we play these random games with it too when were bored. overall, i loved my typewriter, but to be honest its much more easier to use a computer!
3 people like this
@san4465 (44)
• India
14 Feb 07
well the last time i used typewriter was in my school.........i had to type a letter regarding my permission to have a leave and to take HOD sign....damn it!i never used it again ......thx god
3 people like this
@sharon613 (2321)
• United States
13 Feb 07
The last time I had used a typewriter was when I was working for a small agency back in the early to mid nineties.
3 people like this
@safiuddin (165)
• India
14 Feb 07
yeah my father used to use a typewriter which wasnt electronic. still today it exists intact but uses it hardly. now a days computers r a cheaper way to access. no ribbons n all tht crap.
@Garameo (902)
• Germany
13 Feb 07
i wrote my first, maybe 25 job candidacies with the old typewriter of my mom. it was an electric one but i don´t know the name. no idea. but after that i bought my first computer and i´ve learned to type with word. and now 15 years later i´m still typing with word.
@Debs_place (10520)
• United States
14 Feb 07
I stop using a typewriter in the early 80's when I bought my first computer. I had a word processor and a dot matrix printer. I remember my sister, bought an electric typewriter for $300 just before sales on them slumped. She tried selling it a few years later for $150 and could not understand why people weren't even looking at it. Face it, the typewriter has gone the way of the turntable, the 8 track, the cassette player and the horse and buggy.
2 people like this
@callarse1 (4783)
• United States
14 Feb 07
Well, as I was saying in my post, they still sell typewriters today in stores! I am sure they can be found on eBay, and I can say that I have LPs and I was born in the 80s, so when I was growing up there were cassettes and CDs. I don't have any 8 tracks though ;). Anyway, I agree with you. The computer software is so much easier at times because you don't have to type the same thing over and over for each edit. Pablo
2 people like this
• Philippines
14 Feb 07
well as i remember i last saw a typewriter back then when i was a college student, i think that was 2001 or 2002? its kinda freaky and funny the first time i used it, the keyboard was so hard to strike unlike computers, hehehe..lolz!
2 people like this
• United States
14 Feb 07
I think the chances of your sister recouping her money from her typewriter purchase are slim. Although I am surprised to see from the responses some people still have access to a typewriter. If your sister still has a typewriter tell her to hold on to it....someday she may be able to donate it to a museum or sell it as acollector's item. I don't miss them at all..just like you said a thing of the past. I must admit I do miss turntables though...
1 person likes this
14 Feb 07
Wow that takes me back. When I was a great deal younger, way back when, I learnt to touch type on a huge old hunk of metal that weighed a ton. This was a late 1950's manual typewriter, which means a great deal of *key bashing* and getting aches in my right arm from manually returning the carriage to continue typing. It wasn't until the end of the 1960's that I began to use an electric typewriter and it was such a joy to use after the old and heavy manual typewriter. I used several different types of electric typewriter, my favourite being the old IBM golfball machine. Finally I was taught to use an Olivetti 1010, a very early type of word processor, and now I look back at the progress since and wonder whatever will come along next
3 people like this
@roniroxas (10560)
• Philippines
13 Feb 07
typewriters? well admit it guys we all learn typing with the help of the typewriters. i think it still exist but havent seen one for a long time. i dont miss changing ribbons that sometimes mess out the paper you are typing on, i dont miss using the white ink when you have to erase something lol.
3 people like this
@LittleMel (8742)
• Canada
14 Feb 07
NO WAY I hate those! My fingers always turn out black and hard to clean again, it happens everytime some of the ouncher sgot stuck or when the ribbon needs replacement. I prefer printer over that anytime.
3 people like this
@unishwetabh (1031)
• India
14 Feb 07
I have got one ribbon typewriter at my home. I usually type in my computer but sometimes I find it very interesting to type on the typewriter. I don't know what, but there is something in it that really doesn't mae me throw it. My mother keeps on telling me to give it to someone. But I don't feel like doin it. And thus I am very attached to it.
3 people like this
@not4me (1711)
• United States
14 Feb 07
I was born in '76 and in the early 80s I used to play around on a typewriter that looks just like the one in your picture. I remember some of the keys would get stuck and I'd have to pull the letter back down when it happened. I also remember being fascinated at how it switched back and forth between the lowercase and uppercase letters when you hit shift. That think in general would mezmorise me. Then in the mid-80s, to go along with our very first Compaq computer (when they were actually the predecessors of the laptop) we had this fancy typewriter that had a small digital screen that was about a half inch tall and maybe 4 inches long. I don't remember the brand but you could type on the screen and spell-check it yourself in that window. Then in that mode you hit Enter and it would type it all out for you at lightening speed. On both of those types, correcting typos was a pain. I don't have those anymore. They were all sold at a garage sale when we moved from NY to CA back in 1991.
2 people like this
• United States
14 Feb 07
I don't remember seeing the typewriters with a digital screen and spell check..that sounds like an upgrade from what my parents had at home. I am curious now whether my parents still have their old typewriter, I'll have to ask.
1 person likes this
@Rosy001 (363)
• South Africa
14 Feb 07
oh my gosh! i took up typing lessons at school. seems all so fossilized now........ how times have changed? i used a ribbon typewriter......he he he. just thinking about it makes me laugh.......lol
2 people like this
• United States
14 Feb 07
Yeah I remember my typing lessons in high school!! I was never quick but I focused more on accuracy. Typewriters and I had a love/hate relationship the were necessary but I just did not enjoy using them!! Too loud and the ribbons were a mess!! Thank goodness for progress!!
1 person likes this
@coffeechat (1961)
• New Zealand
14 Feb 07
We have a 1928 Imperial that still works. We sometimes ink the ribbon and have a go at the machine. Our fingers get a workout after the soft touch of our laptop keypads. Years ago we had an IBM Selectric with the golfball. Yes, that is fun.
• New Zealand
14 Feb 07
To add another point: I learned to touch type on one - even when keyboards were available. My grandfather thought it was a good idea to learn how to touch type. AThough, the typewriter has gone the way of the dinosaur, morse/telegraph, teleprinter, fax machine. No tears!
2 people like this
• United States
14 Feb 07
That's one technology I was glad to see the last of. It was hard on my hands, and since I've never been a good typist, having to make constant corrections drove me crazy. I love my computer word processing software and would rather write by hand than go back to a typewriter.
2 people like this
• United States
14 Feb 07
Can I hear an amen? Amen to that!!!
1 person likes this
@byfaithonly (10698)
• United States
14 Feb 07
Would you believe just last year I finally let go of the electric typewriter. I knew it was time when my 15 year old asked me if I was going to donate that to a musium. Now don't even think of taking my computer away from me, I go through withdrawals if I have to go a day without one.
2 people like this
• United States
14 Feb 07
That funny..that's exactly what I would expect a 15 year-old to say about a typewriter!! I feel the same way about my computer!!
1 person likes this
• United States
14 Feb 07
I recall typewriters. They were odd. You had to correct the mistakes with whiteout. Then came the electric typewriter. That was fun. You could type like a computer but it wasnt, it was just a typewriter you plugged in. The final one was the computer. The last step up. This reminds me of that part in You've Got Mail, where Meg Ryans boyfriend is like obessesed with typewriters OVER laptop/desktop computers! :p
• United States
14 Feb 07
That's funny I have to watch that movie again, I've forgotten about the boyfriend quirk about typewriters.
1 person likes this