Author Joseph Finder talks about what he does to keep distraction at bay. He’s got a new book coming too, so the YouTube page has a soft sell on that, but it’s not in this video.
Author Joseph Finder talks about what he does to keep distraction at bay. He’s got a new book coming too, so the YouTube page has a soft sell on that, but it’s not in this video.
I wanted an IBM Selectric so bad, back in the day. Now I know where I could get one for the taking away, but it would just be more useless junk in my home.
I OWNED an IBM Selectric II. Husband bought it for me used for $100 from Mustang Jerry Heasley, the automotive journalist. I secretly hoped some of Jerry’s writing luster would rub off on me. Alas, no. But I kept the typewriter long after we transitioned to computers, then gave it to my mother. After she died I wanted to keep it, but sensible beat out sentiment and I gave it to the town library for the genealogy corner.
It hummed rather loudly though, which I found distracting. If I needed to think for awhile, or read what I’d written out loud, I had to turn it off. Still, it kicked started my writing.
Well, I know I used some kind of red IBM electric typewriter when I was a kid. I don’t remember if it was a Selectric. I typed Christmas lists on it among other things. It hummed a good bit. My high school word processor was similar to an electric typewriter, but it had some memory so I could type whole documents before printing. Was it a Panasonic? I don’t remember.
My High School typing class was equipped with Selectrics. Wonderful machines. At home we had a Sears Communicator I, which I believe was a relabeled Smith Corona. It was nice for the quick change ribbon cartridges so I could pop out the black ribbon with a click of a button and put in a whiteout overwrite ribbon. I made a lot of use of that correction ribbon. Somehow, in the dissembling of my parent’s flotsam and jetsam I acquired that typewriter. It’s still down in my basement somewhere.
Greybeard—a popular “decorating” trend (especially during holidays) is to display your vintage typewriter where the family and guests can type little notes to each other. Maybe you can still get cartridges for the (how appropriately named) Communicator.
I see eBaY has one cartridge listed.
That’s wonderful! Think of all the love notes you can leave for your girls (of all ages). And oh my heart—think of all the sweet notes you could get in return.
Okay. Let’s put all of this cuteness to rest now.
Who bought the IBM typewriter from me for $100? I can’t remember. I bought the machine from a traveling salesman on my last or next to the last day pumping gasoline at Hale’s Deep Rock. I worked there while I wrote my first two books. My latest book comes out next month- “Jerry Heasley’s Rare Finds.”
Jerry Heasley
Hi Jerry. It’s Deborah Hendrick, formerly of Pampa(1979-1994). Husband Larry bought your typewriter for me in 1983 or ’84. I think you sold the typewriter because you’d bought a computer.
Glove Box Stories is my website, but I haven’t put up any new stories in a long time. Some of my earliest ideas were outlined on that typewriter. It’s a funny old world, huh.
Congratulations on your new book.
(Hi Lars, hi Phil—)