This blog is the new home of The Mad Farmer Liberation Front. Within you'll find lots of References to Retrotech (mainly of the typewriter variety) as well as Whimsical and Amateurish Poetry and the occasional Commentary on Whatever I'm Thinking About at the Moment.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Maphead, Typehead
(Typed on a lovely and perfectly functional Cole Steel. All you CS haters, keep hatin'.) (Drawn by hand - no, seriously! - on wonderful graph paper scratch pad donated by an anonymous midwestern typospherian. Thanks, typehead brother!)
I have noticed that the typewriter collecting crowd does tend to be made up of a certain age of people. But this is just more fun for me, being a young person who never grew up around typewriters, who bought her first typewriter only months ago. There's a certain depth of experience and knowledge that my fellow typewriter lovers have that I really enjoy learning from.
Cameron: Agreed - the old-white-affliction is certainly not limited to typewriter collecting. I have to assume, though, that users become collectors eventually - in which case there's a whole UN of Typospherians on the verge...
Crystal: I'm glad us fogeys have young, energetic people to entertain us and keep us from spening all day watching Price Is Right and eating applesauce!
Deek: Definitely. Although it seems my cartography skills are failing. And my wordplay skills even worse.
Typewriter collectors and typewriter enthusiasts are not the same (not that anyone here is arguing they are) and I think the latter group is much more demographically diverse than the former. I don't consider myself a typewriter collector whatsoever and would rather light myself on fire than read a long thread in the Portable Typewriter forum on typewriter repair minutiae like feed rollers and rubber feet.
Well, Cheryl, let's hope it doesn't come to that (setting yourself on fire). You're missing some good knock-down, drag-outs on the PTF, I'm afraid. But perhaps that's not your cup of tea either?
Yeah, I think perhaps I should have used the term "Typewriter enthusiast" rather than "Typewriter user" to indicate the difference. Thanks.
You make some interesting points about the demographics of typewriter "collectors".
ReplyDeleteIt seems that the Baby Boomers, particularly white males, like to collect all sorts of things.
I think some of it can be attributed to wanting to recapture a simpler past, indulging in a bit of nostaglia and learning some History along the way.
I have noticed that the typewriter collecting crowd does tend to be made up of a certain age of people. But this is just more fun for me, being a young person who never grew up around typewriters, who bought her first typewriter only months ago. There's a certain depth of experience and knowledge that my fellow typewriter lovers have that I really enjoy learning from.
ReplyDeleteLove that map of Banger Island *grin*
Graph paper and maps go so well together!
ReplyDeleteCameron: Agreed - the old-white-affliction is certainly not limited to typewriter collecting. I have to assume, though, that users become collectors eventually - in which case there's a whole UN of Typospherians on the verge...
ReplyDeleteCrystal: I'm glad us fogeys have young, energetic people to entertain us and keep us from spening all day watching Price Is Right and eating applesauce!
Deek: Definitely. Although it seems my cartography skills are failing. And my wordplay skills even worse.
Love the cover of that book.
ReplyDeleteTypewriter collectors and typewriter enthusiasts are not the same (not that anyone here is arguing they are) and I think the latter group is much more demographically diverse than the former. I don't consider myself a typewriter collector whatsoever and would rather light myself on fire than read a long thread in the Portable Typewriter forum on typewriter repair minutiae like feed rollers and rubber feet.
Well, Cheryl, let's hope it doesn't come to that (setting yourself on fire).
ReplyDeleteYou're missing some good knock-down, drag-outs on the PTF, I'm afraid. But perhaps that's not your cup of tea either?
Yeah, I think perhaps I should have used the term "Typewriter enthusiast" rather than "Typewriter user" to indicate the difference. Thanks.