did any one of u learn to type on a underwood mnual typewriter ?

[AllaN01Bear]

i did . having to pus dow nthehard the keys and the key lock and that ded burn coorrection paper . whippingout the dictonary top see if a word is correct almost near the end of the paper. ugh

[Marthe48]

1. Some kind of manual

I got straight Ds in typing class. I couldn't master touch typing, and I was one of those kids who wore out the eraser before I finished a page. The white out tape had not been invented, nor had white out.
I was really happy to get a word processor with a key to back space and delete errors. I got much better typing, with my own method. When I worked at the library, one of my co-workers said I was the fastest 2 fingered typists they'd ever seen

[UpInArms]

2. I think mine was a Royal

Little round enamel keys



ETA:

That was when I was really young … when I took typing in high school, I was 95 wpm with no errors … shorthand… 120 wpm …

I supported myself with office jobs for years … skills to pay the bills, as my kid now says

[debm55]

3. Mine too.

[Cloudhopper]

10. Same here...

Your 'ETA' was me, too. My mother pushed me into secretarial classes in HS, and I loved it. And, yes, I spent the first year on a manual typewriter, and it was a workout lol. It was a skill you could take to almost any industry, and I worked a few, eventually landing in a law firm - where the most $$ was at that time - and became a paralegal with OJT.

[Ocelot II]

4. It was some kind of manual typewriter - Royal, I think.

It's a relic, it was my dad's when he was in law school and I used it in college in the '60s - still have it. I could never type worth shit, still can't.

[anciano]

5. Oh yeah ....

my first typewriter as a teenager was a portable manual, and I used the "hunt and peck" system until I eventually took a touch typing class in high school on an electric typewriter.
Typing and self taught 10 key proficiency turned out to be the best skills I ever learned as they kept me with a job for most of my working career.

[Biophilic]

6. Oh, yes, an entire room (15 of us I think) clanging down on those dang keys.

I always felt like I had a work out when I was done and oh, the erasing. I think we all hated those classes.

[SheltieLover]

7. Yuppers!

The Selectrics were like magic ehen they came out with auto correct function.

[CTyankee]

17. I liked the Selectric! I thought it was a breakthrough only to be superseded by the first desktop computer.

I remember learning to use a lighter touch on the keyboard. At first, I pounded on the keys until I got instructed NOT to.

[SheltieLover]

18. Me too!

There was one Selectric in one office I worked at that had a feather light touch. They used to call me "machine gun" because of the constant noise from my typewriter. LOL

[Onthefly]

8. Yes. Old blue Smith Corona Sterling model.

[sinkingfeeling]

9. I think we had Royal typewriters in my 1964 typing class.

[fernlady]

11. Remington Rand for me

It was an old machine. It got my Aunt thru college in the 1920's-ish, and my dad thru college on the GI bill after the war. I started playing with it in childhood and it got me thru college too. The keyboard action was heavy! I had fingers like Popeye had arms by the time I graduated. I still have it, plus white out that has hardened to a rock, and carbon paper that my girls loved using in childhood. The rubber platen and rubber rollers have hardened so much that a piece of paper just slides around in it, but I wouldn't part with it for the world.

[3catwoman3]

12. My late mother had a manual Underwood. She was an excellent typist and won several...

...typing contest when she was in high school. It weighed a ton.

I, on the other hand, can't type worth a damn because I never took a typing class. I was going to during my senior year of high school, but it was a choice between typing and advanced biology, and being a science geek, I wanted to take the bio course, so I did. I can hunt and peck with 6 fingers, but have to look at the keyboard. What I wouldn't have given to have a word processor while I was in grad school, but they didn't exist in 1980-82.

I was really sad when I found out that my mom had given her typewriter to the metal scavengers. I had intended to keep it and make a little vintage family heirloom display using it and a few old photographs and books, but, alas, she didn't know I wanted it.

[ProfessorGAC]

13. Smith-Corona Here

My mom was a transcriptionist, so even though she quit working when I was born, she had her own typewriter & was a whiz. 115-120wpm at zero errors on a manual typewriter.
The one she had typed in cursive (almost).
I knew how to touchtype before I could write cursive. Probably 7 years old.
During typing class my sophomore year of HS, I was told to go shoot hoops for 50 minutes each day, because I could already type faster than the teacher.

[electric_blue68]

14. Probably Underwood, or Royal. Not sure where my parents got it. Not good at touch typing either...

We had to go from our Art & Music HS at the time on 135th St down to Midtown Manhattan for our typing class one semester. Ohhh, joy! 🙄

When I got to Art college they had a Selectric. 🥰
I used to type text for some kind of design class? I loved to switch the ball for Italic, or bold! 😄👍

[yellowdogintexas]

15. A Royal manual in the beginning. (1965)

Those old black ones with no letters on the keys and you had to really punch hard to make the letters print properly.
I always suspected the type was weighted

Later on, I inherited my Grandfather's manual Underwood. It did have letters and was much prettier than the old Royals.

I had to type up letters with 2 or 3 carbon copies, prep stuff for the mimeograph, and all sorts of strange things in my typing classes.
I hate carbon paper and I am so glad we do not have to use any of that old stuff ever again

[LogDog75]

16. I learned on a small manual typewriter

It was one for home use and the letters weren't always in a straight line. I taught myself how to touch type andi could get over 60 words per minute. When I started using electric typewriters, my speed went up and so did my errors. I also learned to use correction tape and white-out.

[OldBaldy1701E]

19. It was my father's little pico typewriter.

I think it was a 'Rocket'? I don't recall where it is right now. So many pieces of my father are disappearing and there were not that many to begin with.

[AllaN01Bear]

20. thiis.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/284968516135

[OldBaldy1701E]

21. Yes!

Although it was the mint-green one below the one listed.

Well done!

(Gods, after looking at that page, I want to find it again!)

[AllaN01Bear]

22. anytime.