The Typewriter

Even in these days of high-speed electronics and computers, Tiffani loves all things "old." While visiting Grandma and Grandpa on Thanksgiving Day, she saw the progression of "mechanical writing."

First, my mom pulled out her old, manual Royal typwriter with the red & black, striped, cloth ribbon. It's in beautiful condition and Tiffani found that it still types. Grandma recounted how she received it...she was in junior high and one night at the dinner table, she mentioned to her parents how much she'd like to have a typewriter. Much to her surprise, that very evening, they took her to a store and bought her the Royal typewriter. It cost $50 back then, which was an exhorbitant amount of money at the time.

I can recall MANY days of my childhood hearing the click of those keys as Mom kept in touch with friends and relatives across the country.

Next, Tiffani experienced the Smith Corona electronic typewriter, which Grandma allowed her to bring home with her. It was very fancy in its day...auto-correction of one letter OR a whole word!

The first letter Tiffani typed on it was a Thank You letter to Grandma & Grandpa for all the wonderful things they gave her that day. Then a letter to her friend, Stefanie, who moved away a year ago. She normally writes letters to her far-away friends in the style of Jane Austen's day...written on a large piece of paper & folded into an envelope. But this typewritten letter was special.

Lastly, during our visit, I showed her my old Apple IIC computer. It was the first personal computer I ever owned. My parents surprised me with it on my October birthday during my Senior year in high school. What a blessing that turned out to be! It seems like such an antique...no hard-drive to save on, a tiny monitor, and green, dotted characters. They have even kept the old dot-matrix printer! Tiffani loved it!