The typewriter's farewell letter

This month, the last typewriter manufacturing factory, Godrej and Boyce, is closing its doors, ending an impressive 141-year run for the invaluable, deadly, powerful, groundbreaking, trendsetting…but evidently not indispensable…mass communications tool.

For writers, businesspeople, and journalists, the typewriter literally became an extension of one’s appendages. Since its invention in 1870, countless classic pieces of literature (along with some pieces arguably less essential, such as ‘Hustler Forum’) were pounded out on keys of all shapes and sizes.

But beginning in the 1970s, word processors and computers wormed their way into newsrooms and offices, and the “death-ding” of the typewriter was inevitable.

When I received my first typewriter as a kid, I thought it was just about the coolest thing ever (which should give you an idea of how cool I was as a child).

I remember my best friend and I put out our own newsletter when I was about 10 years old, and that was the first time the typewriter went from a toy to a career enhancement for me. “Wow,” I thought…”I can type stuff, and people will actually read it.” (Whether that happens today is debatable.)

Unfortunately, using a typewriter from such a young age did have one drawback for me. Without the advantage of proper “QWERT” tutoring, I taught myself to type using only the middle finger of my left hand and the first two fingers of my right, causing people who watch me type to give me the oddest looks.

In college I even took a typing course, trying to learn the right way, but many years of using the “freakyFred” method ensured I could not break my routine, and I finally gave up, going back to the “middle finger” method (which has come in handy before…I have been able to flip off the deserving by simply extending my finger while ‘innocently’ typing).

If anyone would like to see one of the strangest typing methods ever, feel free to stop by the newsroom when I am working on a story and get a free show.

So, a moment of silence for the death of the typewriter….and trees everywhere declare victory.
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