Went to the “typewriter jam” at the SF Center for the Book last Friday. Cute little meet up of individuals- there were 23 machines brought in, nearly all made available for people to play with.
That’s my baby, up close in the center most photo. Not nearly as tuned up or well taken care of as most of the others, but I love her. Was forced to take it when buying a book at a garage sale back in... high school? Have lugged it around with me since. Once wrote a letter “from Santa” with it (on vellum) to a co-worker’s daughter to combat her older sibling’s attempts to bust the lie- report was that it went over well.
It’s cute to see what people will write on a machine when allowed to play with it. Very meta, the mind consumed and obsessed with the act of writing rather than having something it wants to say. Hearing how many machines folks had was surprising. A young gentleman I spoke with had brought only one of his three- the one used for letters. His favorite was the one he used for fiction writing, which he of course excitedly showed me a photo of it. There was a speed/accuracy typing contest and they handed out free copies of the book from the SFO airport’s typewriter exhibition.
Overall a little weird, but a delightful low key event.