Saturday, December 19, 2009

In the beginning....

This one is electric!!! This was a manual 'portable' typewriter.

The radio stations well know for power at night: WCKY & XERF



TV came along, radio is still around but not as powerful as it once was.

Today's exciting entry!!!!!

We have been hauling a computer around thinking all it needed was a power supply. Well today I found the power supply here in Wildwood. The techie put it in, and that was not all that was wrong with the computer. Soooo it is now junk. So we are operating as we have, Sherry on the laptop me on the PC. She has gotten used to the laptop now.
Sherry is a typist. One of her many jobs was as a secretary and is used to typing things ‘correctly’. I took a typing correspondence course in service and as years went on I had to use the typewriter more and more. Over the years I have never learned not to watch the keys, but watch the results on the paper (screen). I still cannot type numbers using two hands. Sometimes I will type a whole sentence on this thing and nothing will be going on the screen. That upsets me. Ha!

Typing and word processing are birds of a different color. When we had a yard sale, before heading for this life on the road, I sold a brand new typewriter with an auto correction feature, for $2. Does anyone use typewriters anymore? It is wonderful to back space or click where the error is and correct it. Amazing to have spell check as you type with auto correction in many cases. That is just an example of advancing technology. Youngsters 20 and down have no idea of what a real typist had to master to type letters for attorneys and other bosses on a type writer.

But then, sometimes we forget there was a time when we did not have automatic washing machines and heaven knows there was a time when you could not even imagine a dryer! Radio stations that signed on at six in the morning and signed off at midnight with the national anthem. Truckers and all night travelers had only two or three AM stations to listen to. WCKY in Cincinnati and XERF just across the border from Del Rio, TX were two.

The first TV program I ever watched was Howdy Doody. The firemen allowed us boys to sit in the station and watch it. Kids today would laugh it off the air, but it was a beginning. Everything has a beginning, and most things have an ending. This entry is ending. Thanks for coming by the log.
Nite Shipslog
PS:
Children's Logic:
"Give me a sentence about a publicservant," said a teacher.
The small boy wrote: "The fireman came down the ladder pregnant."
The teacher took the lad aside to correct him. "Don't you know what pregnant means?" she asked.
"Sure," said the young boy confidently. 'It means carrying a child."

6 comments:

Paula said...

You stirred up the memories with this entry. My youngest daughter typed and answered the phone for an attorney in the afternoons when she was still in high school. I typed names and numbers on folders at an insurance company right out of high school. Like that pregnant joke.

Fred Alton said...

What an enjoyable blog. You've turned out to be a prolific writer. Oh what fun memories this blog brought. You forgot one of the major stations though - WSM, Nashville, Tennessee, Home of the Grand Ole Opry! "How-deeeee! I'm jist so proud ta be here!" You started Don and Earl, Jackie and Arlen Vaden and The Southern Gospel Melody Singers (and others) playing in my head ... "And be sure to get our latest and greatest song book offer ever made on the radio - absolutely free and postage paid - for a donation of a dollar er more!"

betty said...

I do remember typewriters quite well; having learned to type on a manual one, not electric, and I remember white-out and sometimes having to re-type a whole letter because you couldn't get it corrected to look nice and professional. Bet Sherry is a fantastic typist! I get spoiled now because I have an expander program where I type just two or three characters and a word or phrase expands out; saves on strokes if you are paid by production but it makes it challenging when I'm writing comments because I'm used to my short hand and it doesn't expand out here (for example pta is my abbreviation for patient)

great entry tonight!

bet you are glad you are down in Florida and not anywhere near Maine these days

betty

Helen said...

Well I had forgot all I ever knew about typewriters. At least I can still see how to use the keyboard on this computer. When my son first got their computer he said to me, "mother do you realize how long it's been since I was in school and used a typewriter"? My answer was "son do you realize how long it's been since your mother was in school and used one" LOL. All those things you mentioned I remember. Our kids of today don't know anything about those days of long ago unless we tell them and then they are amazed at what was popular in the older days. Helen

shirl72 said...

Funny you would mention old typewriters. I went
downstairs and plug my typewriter in and typed
a song because I could not get this computer to
do what I wanted. Remember Dad's portable one
you could see the letters flop up on the roller.
But he got his sermons typed. I don't remember
the first TV program I think is was a lot of snow.

Shirl

Terri said...

Well Jack...in high school...I think it was my freshmen year I took typing class on the old typewriters..I lasted one day...I went to talk to them to switch classes and then I went to be a teachers aide..LOL Typing on an old tyepwriter was for the birds for me...our teacher wouldn't even allow us to look at the keys... HELLO it was all knew to me...I didn't know for all I knew R was beside K...haha!

I taught myself how to type on a computer...it wasn't long before I didn't have to look at the keyboard and could type away just looking at the screen...unless of course I made a mistake..LOL

Love ya!
Hugs Terri