About this blog

This blog is about the daily activities in a busy typewriter shop. I want to share with you the many interesting people who come in here, the beautiful machines I get and most of all the great typewriter stories that people share with me!

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Quack, Quack


anyone understand duck talk?

"Any of you guys know how to type."

Merry day after Christmas. I hope everyone had an joyous holiday. I know I did. My friend Abraham sent me the first two pictures in this blog. I like old pictures with typewriters in them. Its always fun to try to identify the machines in them. Easy enough in these two pictures, but the reporter interviewing the duck intrigued me. Why was the duck being interviewed and what did it say? After much investigating I found that the duck was trying to tell us that all allusive meaning of life. In a cruel twist of fate, there was nobody in the room that could interpret duck. So once again mankind misses another chance at enlightenment. No wonder the newspaper swept this story under the rug. Oh, the typewriter that the reporter is leaning on is a Smith Corona Eighty-eight Secretarial. The picture was published in 1959.

    This next picture I wanted to show because of all you Olympia SG-1 fans out there. I wanted to show the SG-1 in its natural enviroment. This picture was published in 1957 in a Portland, ME newspaper. Those machines look brand new.


     Last week was another very busy week in the shop. A bunch of people came in to buy vintage manuals for gifts, some at the last minute. Also many repairs in through the door. One nice thing I noticed is several people who bought a machine two weeks ago, brought in a friend to buy a portable manual for someone in their family last week. Two weeks ago, the nice women that bought the green Optima that I featured on my blog, came in with her girlfriend who bought a beautiful Corona Silent for her husband. That was probably the prettiest machine that I had in the store then. Also a women from New Hampshire came in a got a Royal KMM for her husband and also bought three KMM ads to go with it. I recently got a whole bunch of Royal KMM ads from 1940 and 1941. They were all really neat and a few were funny. A nice dad came in a got a Royal Custom II in metalic red for his six year old daughter. I know some people think that is too young but I think its a perfect age to start typing. Kids that age are facsinated with machines and learn to type rather quickly. Plus, they're going to grow up with a typewriter in the house which many kids today are not.
     I only had a few service calls last week because its like a vacation week at offices in town. But I had more than the usual amount of repairs come in for the week. That means I'll be chained to my bench all this week. And thats a good thing. I think that I'll use my Christmas money to but a scanner for the computer so I start typecasting and post better quality pictures. I've got tons of machines around here with lots of interesting typestyles. This should be interesting because I'm really not that good of a typist. Also, starting in the new year, I promise to start writing stories to help you out. Like what to look for when buying a used machine, helpful repair tips to common problems, those kind of stories. Friends and follows have been very heplful with ideas and stories they would like to see. Thanks for all the help. 
     Thats it for this week. Thanks for checking it out. I would like to wish everyone out there and around the world a happy and safe New Year. 
   
  

9 comments:

  1. Thanks for another great set of stories and images. Keep it up in 2011.

    I gave my 5-year-old niece a Royal Mercury for Christmas, and it was the most popular of her many gifts, for sure.

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  2. "Quack, Quack, Qwerty," says the duck!
    Actually, the Portland Press Herald had plenty of quotable wise quacks to publish that day.

    So glad to know your season has been going well. Everybody is rooting for you, friend and fowl alike!

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  3. Thank you for posting! I don't comment often but I always find what you have to say enthralling.

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  4. Thank you for commenting everyone. More importantly, for reading my blog. I'm still amazed that people are interested in what goes on in my little store. Happy New Year to all!

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  5. Those are all great stories. I agree that a typewriter is great for young kids. My son is five and loves to type whenever I am typing, so I usually have two out and ready. My nephews, who are five and two, also love playing with them when they come over. I have taught all of them how to use them carefully, i.e., not pounding on the keys, only pressing one key at a time, et cetera, and they are all doing well with them. Fun stuff!

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  6. It's quite nice to hear that the last remaining typewriter shops are actually hopping with business and you folks aren't sitting at your desks twiddling your thumbs and watching soap operas on TV. It gives us hope that you'll be around when we need our aging machines worked on. (:

    I'm lucky enough to have a typewriter shop a few blocks away, and it's great to be able to drop in and pick up a ribbon and chat about typewriters for awhile with someone who really knows their stuff. Reading your blog is kinda like getting a extra dose of that, so as long as you keep blogging, we'll keep reading.

    May 2011 bring you even more success in doing what you love!

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