IBM Selectric Typewriter - A Distant Memory

Guarding the font ball

After having learned to type on an old manual typewriter (I think it was a Royal), it was a real treat to get an IBM Selectric (electric typewriter) with that cool little font ball. From time to time we'd still have to take a mushy eraser and clean the gunk from the letters on it, but it was quite an advancement from the manual typewriter with its keys that rushed to form a big, tangled clump when I was trying desperately to get a profound thought that was rapidly evaporating down on paper, like those thoughts you have when you're just waking in the morning. They seem so extraordinary, perhaps brilliant, and you're trying to hang onto them, yet when you're fully awake, you realize they're nothing special, and often make no sense at all. Untangling the keys of the manual typewriter was a lot like slowly waking...and by the time the keys were painstakingly separated and ready to use again, the profound thought had escaped.

I loved the IBM Selectric, and had my own at home for several years before it finally died. When I wanted to replace it, I found they were no longer making parts for it, so it seemed pointless to try to find another one. I still think it was a great typewriter, and I'm still rather fond of it.

The knight is another favorite thing, given to me by a young man who cast it from pewter, I think it is. So now the little knight has the perfect responsibility: Standing guard atop the cookstove, in front of the little cast iron train, keeping vigil over the font ball - lest anyone should try to abscond with that rare little artifact from the pre-computer era.

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Did you learn to type on a manual typewriter?
Did you use one of the first word processors?
Have you known nothing but computers all your life?
Do you know what a manual typewriter is? ;-)
Have you seen an IBM Selectric with its interchangeable font ball?

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P.S. By the time you read this, we will be on our way to the airport to fly to Texas to visit our daughter and son-in-law for a week. Cranberry Morning will most likely be on hold until we get back. We'll see. I'm not making any guarantees. I am taking my laptop along, just in case the separation anxiety is too great to bear. :-)

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