Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Worthless Skills

This just popped into my head as I was typing the title of an article I'm writing. Remember when you were centering something on the page on a typewriter, and you'd start in the middle and then mutter (if you were typing the title of this) wo, rt, hl, es, s-space, sk, il, ls -- and then type it and voila your title would be centered. I don't know why this stuff fascinates me -- I think because at one time it was so much a part of our routines and then it just vanished.

I also remember how you could squeeze in a letter if you'd omitted one and didn't want to retype the whole page. You'd go to the letter before the missingn one, press down the space bar once, but hold it down, type the letter and then release the space bar. If you did it right (and I so frequently did), you would barely notice.

I am also thinking about this because of the time travel in this book. He talks about 50 cent pieces and how you don't see them anymore. Why? Where did they go? I think the last one I got was about 15 years ago.

Oh dear, I am sounding like an old lady. At least I'm not railing about "those youngs kids" and how they dance.

2 comments:

Mary Mc said...

I had completely forgotten about centering and squeezing together letters! So long ago....also try asking a 30-something about carbon paper ;)

Melissa said...

Oh, I love this!! I had not thought of this in years either! Made me laugh out loud!