Doris, the 1966 Olympia SM 9
The Typewriter Bone Scores Again… sorta…
To Type, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth...
A man of the cloth and the steel he wields
To Type, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth... © 2015
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Doris, the 1966 Olympia SM 9
The plastic electronic typewriters do not have lives or souls. They are cheap tools, nothing more. But Doris and her ilk have hearts, vital tension, history, and character.
I remember 3 family typewriters from my childhood from BC (before computers): a 60’s SCM Galaxie 12 (which I vaguely remember disliking), an IBM Selectric III (used by my mother at work, and sometimes brought home to type up newsletters. she had extra golfballs, and I remember liking it a lot), and a late-80’s Brother “black plastic wedge” (a daisywheel. no idea what the model was).
I remember liking the Brother despite not having the extra typefaces, but it was absolutely a tool with no romance attached to it. I can empathise with someone who is into Selectrics, but I think pity is the only appropriate response to anyone who is into plastic wedges.
Later on in the ADs (After Digital), my favorite printer was a gigantic, incredibly noisy Radio Shack daisywheel printer, for which I had many typewheels. It required acoustic foam insulated housing to avoid hearing loss in the operator, and even then it was loud enough when it ran that the neighbors complained. So, I have a small amount of romance for the daisywheel concept in general, as long as it’s done with panache. Plastic wedges have no panache.