Office Equipment - Then and Now

3/8/2016

A long time ago, in a faraway world, secretaries and typists pounded out letters, reports, and anything else you could imagine that needed to be typed.  Initially, we used manual typewriters, which for the record, requires one to have very strong pinkies to push down the "a" and the colon keys.  

Ah, but then came electric typewriters and our pinkies were given a rest.  There was also a time when companies paid for regular service of these typewriters.  If something was wrong, you called and a repair man came out.  Simply lovely.  

I remember one such call that I made.  The operator asked me what was wrong with my typewriter and stupidly I said "my period isn't working".  What I was trying to say was that the key on my typewriter with the period on it, was no longer working.  Anyway, a good laugh at my expense!

In those days, typewriters were so heavy that they could be declared a lethal weapon.  If, and that's a biggie, a secretary could actually pick up said typewriter and hurl it at a bad guy, he'd be badly hurt.  Thankfully in all my years of pounding keys, I never needed to resort to that kind of violence.

Then the personal computers came out and computers started showing up in offices everywhere.  Secretaries were trained on these machines, but we hated them.  Typewriters were and are wonderful.  You know exactly what you're going to get when you start typing.  With computers, there's a chance that you'll type for hours, without saving your work (bad I know) and then you get a power surge and everything you've typed is gone.  In a flash.

Want to fill out forms?  A typewriter wins hands down to a computer.  Oh you certainly can fill out forms using the computer, but the lines never seem to line up properly and you end up with answers to questions either above or below the question.  It never seems to be on point.

While I initially hated computers, with the advent of Word Perfect (who didn't love that software?), all was good in computer land.  And, then there was Windows, which everybody uses now, it's the only game in town.

I detested the transition to Windows, but you can only fight so long.  Your boss has decided that you'll use Windows, so you have to adapt and adjust.  And I did.  The new word for typing is word processing, which sounds swanky, but let's face it - it's still typing!

I started taking typing classes in junior high and all through high school.  I have been "typing" for close to 50 years, and I'm not too proud to admit that I'm d*** good at it.  

Even in retirement, I am at my computer every day - typing.  I type my blog, play Words with Friends, check on stock prices and investigate how much reality stars make from their carefully scripted lives.

Yesterday, I was moving too quickly and ended up with my Desktop shortcuts at the side of the screen, where they belong and also at the bottom of the screen, where they don't belong.  No amount of maneuvering allowed me to get rid of the shortcuts on the bottom of the screen.  When Jeff came home, he did something and my computer is back to normal.  I have no idea what he did and even if he told me, I'd likely not understand.  But, I'm forever grateful for the computer geeks (Jeff and the boys) that make my computer life easier.

P