Stickers of the Dead

From the original receipt found with my church-bazaar find, a late-model Olivetti 32. Purchased for $99.50 in October 1975 (not including sales tax.) An online inflation calculator makes this $420.20 in 2011 dollars, or about the cost of a budget laptop. 2247 Market in San Francisco is currently Lime Restaurant.



Adhered to the front of a Smith-Corona Sterling, this fine badge from Key Typewriter in Sunnyvale, down in the heart of Silicon Valley. No search engine matches for this business, but the telephone number uses a three-digit exchange, which probably dates it from at least the 1960s.



This is inside the case lid of the same Sterling. Presumably when Key went the way of the buggy-whip, Century Business stepped in and got the previous owner's, um, business. Century is still around.



My favorite one by far, stuck to the side of my big Royal standard machine. I'm not sure if Berkeley Office Equipment morphed into Berkeley Typewriter or California Typewriter, or was a third business entirely. With a major University just down the street, there would have been a demand for administrative machines and student machines alike.

Deserted

Typed with "Morticia", the 1956 Olympia SM3

• (If) There Can Be Only One at LFP
  

The Amazing Floating Olympia

I like to use "Bibb washers" from the plumbing aisle of the hardware store, although these photos show the machine using rubber gaskets from an auto parts store. You have a fair amount of flexibility here: you primarily need to accommodate the screw, and have something thick enough that it will support the weight of the typewriter and hold the workings up above the frame. Most carriage-related ills that I've seen on SM-x machines magically resolve with this fix.


Old washer on the left, replacement on the right.


Time + gravity does this to the original rubber washer: the synthetic replacement should last another 50 years, easy.

Typed on Morticia, the Olympia SM-3

Word Power

Sent from Morticia, the SM-3

Reboot, Reset, Recharge

Typed on Morticia, the Olympia SM-3

Mysterious gaps due to me cutting out strikeouts with Gimp before uploading

* The "Out of Town" mail slot is a holdover from my rural upbringing. My hometown's post office had (and likely still has) a slot dedicated solely to local mail, though I was never clear on what that actually meant, as the definition of "town" was pretty fluid. I'm afraid that I don't know the specific reason why this warranted its own drop point and bin, though I suspect once upon a time, residents could supply far simpler addresses and the mail would get there just fine: "Aunt June Doe, Main Street." Only the fancy out-of-town stuff would require high-falutin' zip codes and full street addresses. That's my theory, anyhow.

It's been decades since I lived anywhere that had such a setup, but it's so ingrained that I check every single time I walk in to drop off mail, for fear of dropping it into the wrong opening, and inconveniencing a mail clerk. As if sixty Christmas cards in one dump wasn't an inconvenience on its own.

And That's a Wrap

Typed on Morticia, the Olympia SM-3

In Case You Didn't Already Know...

It Followed Me Home

The hazards of a neighborhood yard sale...

I spotted a tombstone-keyed Royal Quiet DeLuxe and a gummy Olympia SM-3 over the weekend while developing a nice sunburn, walking around our multi-block yard sale. Almost picked up the Royal, but didn't as I'd have to lug it home. This morning on the way in, I spotted the Olympia in its case by the curb. It came along with me. I hope that Royal isn't being turned into jewelry.



Still wrestling with the carriage lock on the Oly -- it won't come unstuck, which might mean escapement or carriage problems. I (mis)remembered the segment as being rusty, but it's not -- all the bars are sluggish and slow, though. I'm hoping this does not become a parts machine. But there's an Oly SM-7 being offered on Craigslist -- maybe a Twolympia-type project could happen if this one is a wash...