Happy Birthday IBM Selectric

RantWoman thanks a former high school classmate for numerous reflections on music, culture, and reminiscence which have landed in the inbox since our high school class passed a major reunion a couple years ago. This classmate was one of about a dozen faces who showed up in our senior year yeabook on all the section division pages. RantWoman does not particularly consider him a close friend but continues to be touched by the material which arrives in the inbox.

RantWoman finds the following items particularly evocative but presently feels no need to rant at length about her own peculiar relationship with typing class. RantWoman's readers may assume there is something to say but let us let the IBM selectric stand on its own for now.

RantWoman has also opted to edit only lightly, mainly for length:

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...I loved this thing so much in high school that I suppose I always thought of it as a person. A very special person. This "thing" was always there for me. It always gave unconditional love.

If I went back in time and back through high school again without this thing in my life, I don't know where I would be today. I would probably be some bum on skid row (does Billings still have a skid row?) mumbling about how society doesn't fully appreciate malt liquor.

I know it was eons ago just right after the dinosaurs. But try to remember your high school education. You can do it. Remember 8-track tapes. Your love of Barry Manilow. OK, a test for you. Look at the clock. You get one minute to think of one thing that stood out in your high school education (classroom education, not boy/girl anatomy education if you get my drift) that was of significant value to you in your life. Go!

...

The most valuable thing that stood out in my high school education had almost nothing to do with a teacher. Although a teacher taught this course obviously (this was before the Internet folks and taking on-line classes), the material was very rote and just about any higher level mammal could have taught it.

The course was Typing. And the very special thing in my life was the typewriter. But not just any typewriter. The typewriter we used was the IBM Selectric.

The IBM Selectric turns 50 this year.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/27/ibm-selectric-typewriter-turns-50-yells-at-tablets-to-get-off-i/


What a lovely piece of machinery. It was almost a musical instrument. If you try to learn to play an instrument that is out of tune, hard to play, looks ugly...guess what? You're going to quit learning how to play it. The Selectric was so lovely that you looked forward every day to caressing it (ok, Rob, you're getting a little weird now).

So I thrived in my quest to learn typing. Big whoop. Rob learned typing. So what?

How much time have I saved in my life due to my wonderful typing skills? Loads. I had no idea that computers would be sitting on every desk and typing would become a huge part of our lives. I was just thinking that I was going to college and I had better learn how to type because I would have to do term papers. How much more productive have I been in my life due to being able to type? Let me get out my calculator (don't get my started on my love of the TI-30 but since I piqued your curiousity, read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-30   ). 1.58% Yep, I've been 1.58% more productive in my life due to typing. Your knowledge of how state legislatures pass laws actually decreased your productivity by 2.13%. So there!

Anyone remember the movie "Peggy Sue Got Married"? Kathleen Turner is the actress who finds herself transported back into high school but with present day knowledge. She's in Algebra class and, of course, it's test day.

Watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3eKzmozvrI


So IBM Selectric, I salute you. By the way, if anyone has one in their basement, it wouldn't make a bad birthday present for someone else who is going to turn 50 in a few weeks. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.