Before you think I have totally lost it read the whole post and then you will “get it”!
So one of the things my husband and I love to do is go to auctions. Sometimes we buy stuff sometimes we don’t but it’s usually a good time and we see some interesting things. I go mostly to keep Paul from buying something just because it’s a “good deal”, as in” Um no we do not need that Krispy Kreme Donut Cart”! Novelty yes, useful no. That’s one of many examples that come to mind. Plus we still have my parents’ house to unload and that pretty much kills our desire to want to add anything new to our possession collection
We needed a break one week-end from house stuff, paperwork..pretty much life in general so we went to an auction/estate sale. Of course we picked the hottest Saturday of the year and it was an outside auction.
How this guy got all this stuff into his little house is beyond me. So much stuff. Made my parents’ basement look like just a few things ( trust me it’s not). Most of it was collectible toys, Nascar stuff..nothing that would much interest me so I started to wander around the yard ( 4 outbuildings with stuff and more items in the yard). I tell you it was like a scene from American Pickers..they would have loved it.
No kitchen sink but a bathtub!
So amidst the rusted bathtubs, old bikes and such was a pristine, almost new in box Olympia Portable Typewriter It was just sitting in the grass being totally ignored. So I kept walking by it, intrigued. It had me at first glance!
My husband couldn’t believe I wanted to bid on it. He thought I was crazy … yup thats me! So just for grins I took it up to be auctioned off and got it for a whopping sum of $10.
As we are lugging it back to the car ( that sucker is heavy) I wondered what I had done but when I got it home I made some interesting discoveries.
Surprisingly the ribbon was still good. I doubt this guy ever opened the case. More importantly I was having fun with it. Yes it took longer than a laptop and there was no way to correct mistakes but guess what? The only thing I can do on that thing is write. There was no urge to check facebook, or email or shop at Amazon. No looking up facts or photos I could use. It was the perfect no distraction writing tool.
A manual typerwriter is the perfect no distraction writing tool! https://www.seejenntri.com/a-little-crazy-y…-tool-is-awesome-2407 #writing #no distractions Click To Tweet
It does have two problems. One it’s incredible noisy. I think this is why writers found it better to be alone in some secluded room or at a cabin in the mountains. I really could not write into the night without keeping everyone awake. And though it claims to be a “portable” typewriter in reality it’s not.
I entertained myself with the thought of lugging it into Starbucks and writing on it. They would probably throw me out. Perfect Seinfeld episode where Kramer tells everyone typewriters are making a comeback and pretty soon all the coffee shops are filled with typewriters driving everyone else crazy. Makes me laugh just thinking about it.
The other positive is it makes me think about all the writers before me who only had this to write on..kinda cool. Think about all the war correspondents who lugged something like this around. Good exercise for sure.
Yes anything I write on it will eventually have to be put on the computer but there is no danger of me accidentally deleting it, and no dependency on the internet or electricity. Seriously though everything anyone writes goes through several rewrites anyways so what’s the big deal?
I won’t write everything on it and I certainly won’t be lugging it on an airplane but for now I am having fun and enjoying the distraction free writing. Probably the best 10 bucks I have spent in a long time.
Oh and my husband still thinks I’m crazy…good thing he loves crazy! 🙂
