Where Old Typewriters Go to Die
“I like the sound a typewriter makes.”
—Paul Auster
“I just sit at a typewriter and curse a bit.”
—P. G. Wodehouse
“The biggest obstacle to professional writing is the necessity for changing a typewriter ribbon.”
—Robert Benchley
“I’ve spent my life alone in a room with a typewriter.”
—Howard Rheingold
“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”
—Ernest Hemingway
“I get up in the morning, torture a typewriter until it screams, then stop.”
—Clarence Budington Kelland
There’s a reason Austin, Texas is known for its invented slogan, Keep Austin Weird. Witness the collection of old typewriters I discovered on the annual Weird Homes Tour last week, aligned in the back yard of a local collector-artist-sculptor of repurposed things (also known as other peoples’ trash). Each typewriter was arrayed on an old metal lawn chair you’d have sat upon in the Sixties (also discards), inside upturned grocery carts, the odd pedal-style Singer sewing machine mixed in, and all collecting rainwater and leaves to provide a glorious tableaux for some iPhoneography. I love mixing the old with the new, don’t you? ♣
My ode to vintage was photographed with my iPhone 5s on a day that was drizzly, overcast and filled with thunderstorms, as our Austin, Texas weather frequently is this month, and all the better for the lack of harsh shadows. For more of my iPhoneography tips and tricks, click HERE.
My very first typewriter was a Smith-Corona, but the simple black Underwood was a mainstay at my home when I was growing up. What about yours?
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wonderful collection!
Very cool idea.
Such a marvelous collection. I would love one of them. 🙂
Leaves and all? Yea, made me nostalgic for the ones I let get away.
Brilliant. I remember my father had an old black typewriter..can still hears the sound it made..and that PING when you hit carriage return. Nearest I got was an electric one at work. They were ”characters”
If you liked those sounds, you’ll love the ones in this old “Classic Hoofing” clip: http://austindetails.me/2014/10/01/tap-the-keys/ Enjoy, and thanks for the memories, Carol!
Mine was an Imperial Portable black typewriter that I needed for my job as a trainee reporter on the local paper…I still have it in the attic
I’ll bet you’re heading to the attic to get it out now. Problem I always had: how to clean the clingy dust off the inky keys.
Before the computer keyboard came along, I abused a lot of typewriters—typing so fast that several keys would collide and stick to each other creating a letter traffic jam without touching paper. Now I just wear the letters off of my computer keyboard until most of them have lost their identity and I have to trust my fingers to find the right keys automatically. Maybe its time to buy another keyboard..
Ah so! We glamorize the old days but typewriter keys eventually always stuck, and there was no easy way to clean the keys, and we had to use carbon paper for copies and woe to anyone who made a typing mistake at the tail end of a page. My typing speed is much faster on my computer keyboard! Sounds like a new keyboard is a worthwhile investment . . . thanks for sharing the memories, Lloyd.
like correcting typos with white out and then blowing on it to get it to dry faster.
I love it people collect other peoples junk! That way I can enjoy it without having to manage it. Great pictures! Love the writing quotes!
P.S. I do NOT glamorize the old days – except for cartoons that actually made sense. (Talking animals do make sense right?)
You are better than me at nostalgia, I suspect. Can’t say I glamorize the old days so much as wish I could view them through my adult eyes. And yes, it’s great to come across other peoples junk being arty, without any responsibility for it! Lovely to have your comments here, Anita 😀