I think my apocalypse typewriter would be one of my Hermes Rockets, so I could grab it and run when radioactive mutants closed in on my bunker of dry goods...
My apocalypse typewriter would be the Underwood 5, so I could bash the mutants over the head with it, a la James Caan in Misery.
The guy I got those typers from was more like a Y2K opportunist. He had apparently spent a few years scooping up every manual typewriter he came across at auctions, flea markets, and garage sales. His theory was that when the Y2K bug rendered all technology useless, people would pay him big bucks for a manual typewriter. (Me, I would have been stockpiling guns and ammo; seems to me that there would be more demand for that type of thing in a techless Mad Max world).
Five years later, his wife was fairly adamant that he get all those blankety-blank typewriters out of their backyard shed. Out of the hundred that he began with, there were 54 left by the time I caught wind of them. Keychoppers had gotten a few, it seems, but many of the others went to an organization that sends them down to Peru for the needy. I can live with that.
In the end, he practically gave the remainder to me if I would just take them all away. Even threw in a Caligraph and an Oliver that he had hidden from the keychoppers and loaded them into a small moving van he had and delivered them 20 miles to my house. It was a good day. Until my wife got home and found her side of the garage filled with typewriters.
Yeah, see, but the different is that you, Mike, aren't doing it for any useful reason. So you're way way different than this nutter Olivander is talking about.
Chaps, I've just run across probably one of the world's last thriving trades in typewriters. Here in the Middle East. It exists. They exchange hands for big bucks. I will post on it but the photos are on a memory card that I won't be able to copy from until I get back home.
Looking forward to the story, TT! I'd heard that India and China were among the last areas still using typewriters heavily, due to intermittent power issues in the more remote areas. It will be interesting to read a first-hand account.
7 comments:
That "n" is a little pidgeon-toed, isn't it.
I think my apocalypse typewriter would be one of my Hermes Rockets, so I could grab it and run when radioactive mutants closed in on my bunker of dry goods...
My apocalypse typewriter would be the Underwood 5, so I could bash the mutants over the head with it, a la James Caan in Misery.
The guy I got those typers from was more like a Y2K opportunist. He had apparently spent a few years scooping up every manual typewriter he came across at auctions, flea markets, and garage sales. His theory was that when the Y2K bug rendered all technology useless, people would pay him big bucks for a manual typewriter. (Me, I would have been stockpiling guns and ammo; seems to me that there would be more demand for that type of thing in a techless Mad Max world).
Five years later, his wife was fairly adamant that he get all those blankety-blank typewriters out of their backyard shed. Out of the hundred that he began with, there were 54 left by the time I caught wind of them. Keychoppers had gotten a few, it seems, but many of the others went to an organization that sends them down to Peru for the needy. I can live with that.
In the end, he practically gave the remainder to me if I would just take them all away. Even threw in a Caligraph and an Oliver that he had hidden from the keychoppers and loaded them into a small moving van he had and delivered them 20 miles to my house. It was a good day. Until my wife got home and found her side of the garage filled with typewriters.
Hope those fires stay far, far away from you.
Wow, "scooping up every manual typewriter he came across at auctions, flea markets, and garage sales" huh? That just sounds crazy.
[glances around room at numerous typewriter cases]
Um... ahem... *cough*
Yeah, see, but the different is that you, Mike, aren't doing it for any useful reason. So you're way way different than this nutter Olivander is talking about.
Ah, I feel soooo much better now. I'm not getting them to be opportunistic, I'm just rescuing them.
That said, I expect that I'll be handing over some to NaNo'ers this fall, if the trend continues (but they likely won't get the S-C. Dig the stripes.)
Chaps, I've just run across probably one of the world's last thriving trades in typewriters. Here in the Middle East. It exists. They exchange hands for big bucks. I will post on it but the photos are on a memory card that I won't be able to copy from until I get back home.
Looking forward to the story, TT! I'd heard that India and China were among the last areas still using typewriters heavily, due to intermittent power issues in the more remote areas. It will be interesting to read a first-hand account.
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