One Space or Two Spaces?

6/10/2018

There was an interesting article in the paper about a newsman who used two spaces after a period.  Apparently, those of us who use two spaces, are pretty much dinosaurs, and stuck in the mud (our past).

I started typing in junior high on a manual typewriter.  The kind of typewriter that required you to have very strong pinkies in order to hit the certain keys, such as the "a" and "p" keys, for example.  Overtime, I managed to easily put all my fingers on the typewriter, and once started, never looked back.

I was trained, that there are always two spaces between sentences.  In younger generations, the two space rule wasn't exactly practiced.  And, with the advent of cell phones, the fewer words and spaces the better and/or easier.

Once electric typewriters became the norm, it was time to teach the "old" dogs new tricks.  Believe me, there was definitely a learning curve.  Instead of reaching up with your left hand to return paper, it was now done with a flick of a finger.  Very cool indeed.

I have in a closet upstairs, an old IBM Selectric typewriter.  The typewriter that is so heavy you could use it for a door stop!  Today, it's considered an antique, but still I haven't tossed it out.  

When computers and printers came along, which required for me, a truly large learning curve.  What I found in my 40 plus years of banging on keys, is that sometimes you don't want to use a computer, you want/need a typewriter.

When I left my career behind, the typewriter was still in place for filling out forms, perhaps a large mailing label or forms for shipping some documents and/or packages.  Could these things be done on the computer?  Of course they can, but for me, and I can be stubborn at times (Jeff would agree with this), it was just easier and faster to put the FedEx form into the typewriter - at least for me.

Today, when I go to a new doctor, there are on-line forms, that you can use.  Adobe (I think that's right, but I could be wrong), allows you to complete that form online.  I find trying to do the forms online, to be so frustrating, that it's easier for me to print out the forms and use a pen (remember those?)!!

I sometimes find that when we're watching television, my hands automatically start pressing imaginary keys.  Since I also knew shorthand, I also find that in my mind, I'm writing out certain words.  By now, I guess I'm pretty well stuck in a rut, and I want to believe, or hope, that I won't have to learn a lot of new stuff.  This is probably hopeful wishing on my part, but as a mother and wife of "geeks", I know that anyone of the boys and/or Jeff will teach me what I need to know.

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