Underwood

Underwood No. 5

It seems that every time I ask writers to do a guest post, I end up chasing after another writing device. This time it’s the manual typewriter. After looking through Strikethru’s guest post, I began looking for a manual. My first place was Craig’s list. In the past, my dalliance with Craig’s List landed me a pair of Beo Vox. J had listed the Underwood and no one took the offer. So he re-listed again, fortunately for me. There was no picture. The advertisment simply states “Antique Underwood”. Well, that wasn’t enough to go on. I expected that ‘Antique’ would be circa 1950 at best. Still, my curiosity got the best of me and I emailed J. The emails lead to a phone call. There was a mild, tepid discussion of where to meet. Finally, J trusted me enough to give me an address and I searched yahoo maps for driving directions. I was still waffling. Then decided to email J back asking for a picture. When I saw it, I called and arranged for a meeting on that very day, a Friday Evening of July 25, 2008. Driving to an unknown location is a bit of stress for me as I fear getting lost. I made an excuse that I rarely venture outside of my bubble, my comfort geographical zone and a typewriter was a good reason to venture forth. Also I don’t like seeing other people’s hampers either. I also didn’t want to be disappointed. There’s nothing like trekking out to such distance and then coming home empty handed. These are the cons of getting a typewriter via Craig’s List. Instead, what I found was a friendly, warm home in Tigard.

“Mr. Typewriter,” J said. He was sanding his deck. He took me in to show it. The Underwood was on the rug near the kitchen ready for me to pick up. “You weren’t kidding when you said it is an antique,” I said. Then asked him how he came to receive such a beast. He said he collected it during his travels. I can’t imaging lugging that beast around. He shows me an old rifle, with out the trigger or any of the metal parts except the barrel that rests on a faded wooden stock, hanging precariously on the wall. The walls were scrawled with foreign country and city names in green paint, on the top part, like a cornice or a frieze. He was thinking of waiting for one of his grand children to inherit it but there wasn’t much room in the house for it. I told him that I have a perfect spot for it, in my home. His wife sooth him by saying that Grandma probably has an Underwood some where in her attic.  We put the Underwood on the table, J’s wife feed a piece of paper around the platen. She seems to be more anxious to get rid of it. The keys move just fine but the ribbon was not threaded correctly and had been dried out in the heat of their attic.  I handed J my forty dollars and he carried the Underwood to my trunk and reluctantly set it down. And off I went, hurrying home before he could renege.

My visit to Blue Moon.

staff.xu.edu polt typewriters Kevin McGowin

Ian Fraizer’s typewriter article in The Atlantic

John Irving’s IBM Selectric interview in Salon.com