Pluggers by Rick McKee for September 08, 2013

He still has lots of white-out,too.

You’re a Plugger if you CAN resort to a manual typewriter.

Electric? Still have my mom’s Smith Corona Portable, that she used in college in 1930. Never saw the need for an electric.

I’m a plugger then. I learned how to type on a old manual. Though my school had the electric Brothers one with the typeball.Thing is, unlike computers, the only spell check there is. Is that book called a ‘dictionary’, AND the bottle of white-out.

I learned to type on the old wood burning typewriters that took five lbs of pressure on each key, and we LIKED it, as the old codgers say. Well, it beat handwriting everything, but I still remember going home after 8 hours of typing every day at my first job, with my back, neck and arms aching. Nobody heard of ergonomics in 1958.

Recently I’ve heard kids complaining that it’s impossible to type on an old Underwood manual, because they’re used to touch typing. My kid asked where the spell check was and gave him a dictionary and showed him how to use the correction tape.

It took me a long time to go from a manual to an electric typewriter because that durned machine made more mistakes than I did. Now I don’t even own one. The last one I owned was just for addressing envelopes for personal letters. My grandson doesn’t even know what a typewriter is although he’s a fast typist.

You KNOW you are a Plugger if you still actually HAVE both an electric typewrite AND a manual typewriter in your possession – and still know how to use both of them!

Still have the old Remington Rand that my Mom used…she could type over 100 wpm on it; with a computer and keyboard, I’m up to 75 mistakes a minute.

@waykirk1 said; “I miss my old IBM Selectric III that my lovely wife insisted that I donate to charity a few years ago.The old Sarge who could type more than 100 WPM in the olden days of yesteryear.”~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I knew that typing class would get me in good with girls back in ‘51, and even running M14/16 SigCorps teletypes, never could get above their self-limiting 60wpm rates.Still,it never paid off to let people know I could type in my further military career. I fixed up my old IBM Selectric III in my office so that when the company broke up and I retired, I could have something to take home with me.. Someone stole it the night before, and if I ever find him, I’m going to aggravate the side effects of his arthritis meds ferdamshure !! Selectrics waz something that will be the ‘cathedral radio sets’ of the future collecting market. and I blew all that money having it overhauled, just to find it gone.. Typing at 100+wpm kinda classified you as a CW intercept operator, Sarge..INT QRK?

Typewriters have been around since the 1860’s. While I never owned an electric my husband has one around somewhere. Since the advent of personal computers, I haven’t seen it lately. Probably in a closet somewhere. I have a manual Underwood I picked up at a flea market one year. Needs servicing and I have to see if I can still find ribbon for it. The Underwood is what the majority of NYC schools had at the time, circa 1950’s, 1960’s.

Brings back memories. I used to repair both manual typewriters and electric. I last repaired the IBM Selectric.Still have a Underwood in the attic & a Sel III in my garageLive in Richmond VA.

I have an old Underwood collecting dust. If I ever get the inspiration to write a novel during a power outage, I’m ready.

This plugger never learned to type, so it’s hunt and peck now. I put my words on paper with pen and pencil in cursive style.

You’re a plugger if you know how to type with more than your thumbs.

I use a high-quality but inexpensive ink jet printer that can rapidly print text or high-resolution, full-color photographs. I could easily print his form including the RED numbers. I’m 67, but I must not be a plugger.