December 7, 2017 – “I wore the ‘e’ off the typewriter.”

         Like mother, like daughter . . . but let me tell the story correctly or Mom would be disappointed.

         If you have some age on you and ever worked in an office, you will affectionately remember the IBM Selectric typewriters of the 1970s until the majority were left behind for computer keyboards.

         My Mom came home from work one day and at dinner that night she announced,

“I wore the ‘e’ off my typewriter.” 

As I was a private secretary across town from where Mom worked, I stopped eating to listen.  She continued,

         “I’ve been having trouble with the ‘e’ being sort of smudged and we had the typewriter repair man in.  They have to order a new font ball; I’ve typed so much I’ve worn out the letter ‘e’.”

         Fast forward – over 40 years later and I am cleaning out my Mom’s china cabinet after her death two months ago and what do I find?  YES, the IBM Selectric ball font with the worn out ‘e’ tucked in the corner in a little plastic case. I knew exactly what it was as soon as I saw it. I notice that the ‘e’ and the ‘.’ are touched with a bit of red nail polish so that they can easily be located.  Anyone can easily see that they are worn lower than the rest of the fonts. 

Mom had kept it to prove her worth as a copious-amount-of-keystrokes typist. And, me knowing what it meant to her, I tucked it into my suitcase as a memento.

         One morning, last week my computer screen stopped functioning and I had to replace it.  While I was at the store, I decided to check out a new keyboard as the white letters on my black keys of N and M were completely worn off and the K and L keys were half worn off.  I have a friend who sometimes comes to my office to print out her paycheck via the internet and it “unnerves” her that the letters are missing.  For me, it is no big deal as I don’t look at the keyboard when I type. But, last month, the spacebar started to stick and I would be pausing to think of a word or a phrase and notice my cursor was half way down the page.  That became aggravating in only a few weeks.  So, I was really in the market for a new keyboard. [I found a wireless combo of keyboard and mouse at serious discount. YES!]

         So – Like mother, like daughter . . . I too, have worn out keys typing, except mine are on a computer keyboard.  I’ve now joined the ranks of a copious-amount-of-keystrokes typist just like Mom.

         I think Mom would be proud.