The Handwriting is on the Wall

Who writes letters anymore? That would have been my grandmother who recently passed. She had the most beautiful penmanship; even until age 94 ¾ . I’m wondering if young kids today have even heard of “penmanship?” Eventually the word will become extinct…especially as handwriting gradually fades away. I can see its demise now…the handwriting is on the wall.

“Typewriter” is also another word and mechanical device with no future. I happen to love typing and I would say “I’m wicked fast.” I could be considered the Mario Andretti of the typewriter...and now keyboard.

I learned to type my freshman year of high school. We first started with positioning our fingers on home row: asdf jkl; and practiced each finger off of hoome row; using the correct finger. It was important to have good posture and to keep your wrists elevated as you typed. I refused to be a limp wrister.

I practiced my typing so I could get faster and faster. I would even practice without the typewriter...moving my fingers on an imaginary typewriter. WEIRDO ALERT.

I could have entered a steno pool after high school…but I don’t like chlorine. Chlorine dries out my hair so I stayed out of the pool. I joined the blood bank pool instead.

Anywho…………..

My grandmother gave me an IBM Selectric typewriter for graduation from high school. The device was revolutionary with its cartridges you could pop in and out…even one with white sticky tape to lift off mistakes. An electrifying invention.

I put that typewriter to good use during my college days when I typed term papers for extra spending money. Finding typing business was a breeze...I tacked “ Call katTYPIST “ to the dorm bulletin board...and my dorm floor phone rang off the wall. I found that most kids would rather spend their time chugging beers than typing term papers. PaulA was a lucky college coed. I gave him the boyfriend discount...free typing..which gave him extra time and money to chug beers.

Although it is hard to beat word processing on a computer....there is an upside to the old clunker typewriter...especially in solving crimes. It's a lot easier to solve a kidnapping case using a ransom note composed on an old Underwood clunker than a laptop/printer. If you remember...the broken "e" key fingered the bad guy every time on episodes of “Murder She Wrote.”