Do you know how to use a typewriter?

[WCUgirl]

This might seem like a really stupid topic, but oh well. I'm curious.

Today, I gave the runner at our law firm (a local college student who works part-time) an assignment, but it had to be done on the typewriter. She was like, "Okay, but how do I work this thing?" She had never used a typewriter before. That blew my mind -- I've never met anyone who hasn't. I think she may have been born in 1985 or 1986.

So, I thought I'd bring the question over here. Have you ever used a typewriter? If not, post the year you were born.

[AlphaFrog]

I remember playing with an old-fashioned one when I was younger.

I'd never used an "electronic" one like the one that they have at my current office until last year.

I didn't get a personal computer till my freshman year in HS (1994). But before then, my reports in middle school were all done on my typewriter -- I think it was a Smith-Corona? Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I think that's what it was called. It was an electric typewriter with the neat auto-correction feature. I still used it in HS, especially when it came time to fill out college applications.

Keyboarding classes in HS were done my sophomore year, but those were the days of black screens, green cursors, and MS-DOS.

We have an electric typewriter here at work that is rarely ever used, except when forms need to be filled in that way. I must admit that I have to reacquaint myself with it most of the time...especially with the color coding things that perform different functions.

[tunatartare]

Yup. Used to use the manual one in my aunt's basement when I was little. Have to use the eletric typewriter at my job for making labels and filling out forms and such.

[Steeltrap]

I do. Had to take a typing class in the summer of 1982 before I attended USC, because I was majoring in sports information (later changed to journalism), and that was a prerequisite.

Haven't worked on one, though, since 1988.

[33girl]

We still have a typewriter here in the office for labels and such. I can't imagine having absolutely no clue of how to work one...it's not that much different than a computer keyboard.

[Drolefille]

Well, I could type! But the moving of paper and margins and such.. well that's different. I was so proud of my first envelope

[WCUgirl]

This is a fairly older typewriter. More like an electric typewriter versus a word processor.

She didn't even know how to turn it on. I had to show her how to load the paper (upside down!), how to use the correction button and margin release. I showed her how you have to line up the text in the lines in the little window thingie on the...what's that thing called? Where the letters come out? Lol. And she kept rolling the paper through and then having to go back and her lines were ALL uneven. It was just....weird.

[Dionysus]

Yes. I had one of those electronic ones. I didn't get a computer until I started college.

[Drolefille]

Born in '84
Never used a typewriter until my current job at the bank.

My coworkers laughed at me. A lot

[Sister Havana]

Sure do! I learned how to type on an electric typewriter while I was in junior high. For my eighth grade graduation, I got a really cool typewriter that used four colored ink pen kind of things instead of a ball or ribbon. I wish I remembered what it was called!

[RedAngel]

Yes, I received a typewriter for high school graduation gift (and still have it!). Once in awhile I use it if I have something that needs to be typed.

[tld221]

Originally Posted by AXiD670

She had never used a typewriter before. That blew my mind -- I've never met anyone who hasn't. I think she may have been born in 1985 or 1986.

So, I thought I'd bring the question over here. Have you ever used a typewriter? If not, post the year you were born.

wow, i actually resent that statement. though i was born in 84, ive used both an electric and manual typewriter. my college advisor made us type all our college applications vs. printing them. this was around the time the Common App came out and my advisor wasnt having it!

so i can type on both. im no pro, but i was when i had to type those applications.

p.s. i got accepted to all the schools i applied to, so maybe the typing was impressive? who knows.

[owlie33]

Originally Posted by AXiD670

Have you ever used a typewriter? If not, post the year you were born.

I never had to use one in school - we had computers from K-12, then also in college. I remember playing with one in my parents' office. But the first time I actually USED on was my last job.

I was born in the late 70s

[DSTRen13]

Originally Posted by AXiD670

This might seem like a really stupid topic, but oh well. I'm curious.

Today, I gave the runner at our law firm (a local college student who works part-time) an assignment, but it had to be done on the typewriter. She was like, "Okay, but how do I work this thing?" She had never used a typewriter before. That blew my mind -- I've never met anyone who hasn't. I think she may have been born in 1985 or 1986.

So, I thought I'd bring the question over here. Have you ever used a typewriter? If not, post the year you were born.

I was born in 1984. I've played with a typewriter before - like typed a couple of sentences on an old one stored in a backroom at a job once - but know how to actually use the thing? Like go backwards and forwards and space things and all of that? No. Even in elementary school, we took computer class and were learning to type on the Apple IIEs (I've been a Mac girl since kindergarten ).