Nostalgia

NPR's Susan Stamberg had a nice piece this morning on typewriters.

In my first job after graduating from college, I worked for the Department of Energy. We GS-7s were not supposed to type for ourselves--secretaries were supposed to do that. But my handwriting is illegible, and my job required me to write a lot (something like two 10-20 page Decision and Orders a week), so to keep our secretaries from going mad, I needed to be able to type first drafts.

In a supply closet, I found an IBM selectric that nobody else seemed to be using, so I accidentally placed it on my desk. No one said anything, so it stayed there for the remainder of my time at DOE. I loved that thing--before or since, I have never encountered anything on which I could type as quickly or accurately.