Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Typing the Summer Away

I’ve always been a busy kind of person, you know, the kind that needs to stay busy. I have a hard time sitting still and being a couch potato so when my parents asked me if I wanted to go to summer school when I was in 6th grade I jumped at the chance. I wasn’t behind in any classes so I got to study anything. Two classes out of a list. I don’t remember all the choices but I do remember I picked sewing and typing. Sewing because I was intrigued with the idea of creating something and typing because…….I thought it would come in handy someday (My mother said I could always use it at work if I worked in an office; I never thought I’d use as a nurse).

The book we used looked sort of like this one:

Vintage 1957 20th Century Typewriting Book Elementary Course

We had a chart for finger placement. I had to memorize it….Good thing since the keys on a computer are about the same. Not 100% but close enough.

Vintage 1957 20th Century Typewriting Book Elementary Course

We used a typewriter sort of like one of these. By the end of the six weeks I could type 30 words a minute, faster if you didn’t count the mistakes….but they did.  Later, when I took typing again, I got to use an electric typewriter. My speed dropped to 25 words a minute (mistakes again). I definitely wasn’t intended to work in the typing pool. Later my mom encouraged me to learn stenography….”Anyone can type but a good stenographer makes money” she said. Never got over 100 wpm.

Oh well, not everyone should work in an office. Some of us needs to find cool things to sell on Etsy….like this cool book.

Post by Miss Eileen aka GoofingOff

MissEileen vintage
Goofingoff Etsy Judaic fabrics, sewing patterns
GoofingOff Artfire Sewing patterns, plus size patterns
Metal Woods N Water unusual stuff and metal work

1 comment:

  1. I learned to type from a book like this also!! In high school it was the best class - after that I was able to get temp office jobs during my college breaks. I took steno, too but forgot it pretty quickly. Once wordprocessors & then computers came around it definitely was a learning curve to not hit the keys as hard as a typewriter had been.

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