The internet was all abuzz today with the news that the last manufacturer of Typewriters, located in India ceased to make them any longer. With that news many of us aged 40 and over realized that a part of our upbringing had suddenly ceased to exist. It didn’t matter that we haven’t even seen a typewriter in a decade or more – no, it was the fact that someone finally put a stop to making something that was such a significant part of our early years.
Hearing of the news reminded me of a column I wrote back in 2008 for a number of community newspapers that carried a satirical column I wrote called “Eric’s Perspective”. The column in particular made a significant reference to Typewriters and in particular, how my eldest son came to learn about them. I dug into my files and noticed that I still had the column saved somewhere so in light of the news about the demise of the Typewriter I’d like to share with you:
Weren’t Museums Supposed to Display Really Old Things?
If anyone wants to f
eel old very quickly, all they need to do is learn that something which was an integral part of their past can now be found in a Museum.
Even though I haven’t crossed that symbolic 40 year old barrier (soon, but not yet), I had to comes to terms recently with the fact that something which I used with great frequency when I was young is now part of an exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum and truthfully I’m having a hard time accepting it.
During the March Break my mom took my eldest son to the ROM. He had never been before and he had a blast. When I asked him what he saw he pretty much told me what I thought he would as he raved about the dinosaurs and the Totem Pole among others. However he then mentioned that he saw this really neat display of very old computers. I perked up and asked what kind of computers, and he said “They were these computers that didn’t have a monitor and you had to actually put paper inside and press on the buttons really hard to make letters”. Immediately I knew what he was talking about. With a sense of dread I asked “Were they called Typewriters” and he said “Yeah…that’s what they were. They were weird!” Truthfully I didn’t hear much of what he said after that…
Suddenly I was in the midst of a very surreal and mind-numbing moment. I could almost feel the liver spots beginning to form on my hands and the osteoporosis settling into my bones. I was completely ready to hear him tell me about pre-historic exhibits and how the early settlers used cast iron pots to cook and washboards to clean their clothes. What I wasn’t prepared for was being told that something which I used frequently in my youth was now part of a museum exhibit where young kids can stare at them in bewilderment.
We’ve always joked about 5 year old computers and cassette players being “Relics” but apparently we aren’t too far off the mark. When society advances so quickly that we can see facets of our not-too-distant lives on display at museums one really has to take a moment to simply be amazed.
After letting it sink in though, I began to wonder if there was a crusty bottle of Liquid Paper beside that typewriter since I lost a bottle about a decade ago and haven’t been able to find it ever since.
