Remembering the Typewriter

Today is one of my lazy days. I went to the gym in the morning and now just chilling at home. My only refuge is my laptop computer. Browsing through my Facebook pages as well as my Twitter account to check on what's happening with the people that I've been following. Gosh, I felt I'm a stalker now. Anyway, browsing though my Twitter, I found a link to a CBS News picture gallery about the ever reliable typewriter. Scanning though the pictures I did remember how the typewriter helped me through my student days specially in college and beyond.

It was my father who first introduced me to the typewriter. He borrowed a portable typewriter from his office and brought it home. I began playing with it but my father taught me the proper placement of my fingers on the keyboard or the key assignments on each finger. I never had a formal training in using the typewriter and I don't know what is my typing speed but my dad gave me the sentence that was being used to practice one's skills on the typewriter keyboard: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." This sentence is found in Wikipedia and defined as "an English-language pangram, that is, a phrase that contains all of the letters of the alphabet. It has been used to test typewriters and computer keyboards, and in other applications involving all of the letters in the English alphabet".

I owe a lot to the typewriter. I used it on my thesis as a requirement for graduation. I typed my first job application letter and several letters thereafter. I used it to update my bio-data as a supplement to my application letters. When I got my first job, I underwent a job training on how to basically use a computer keyboard and I easily passed through that. In the office I encountered the electric typewriter or commonly called the IBM golf ball electric typewriter. This time there was no changing of ribbons but you just have to replace the "golf ball" depending on the resulting font style of the characters or letters that you wanted. Eventually our office became more automated and each one of us were assigned to a desktop computer. This was where we wrote our reports, letters and memos instead of giving them to our secretaries or office clerks. Our secretaries' office were eventually transformed from the typewriters on their tables to computer keyboards and screens.

The introduction of the computers basically brought the demise of the old typewriter and also to mention other office equipments that were eventually phased out to give way to the development of a modern office.