My typewriter jammed mid-letter and I nearly lost it

I was typing a thank you note to my aunt in Portland and the carriage lock snapped, tangling the ribbon and bending the key lever - spent 45 minutes with tweezers and a screwdriver on my kitchen table fixing it. Has anyone else had to MacGyver their way out of an old machine breakdown just to finish a simple task?

2 comments

2 Comments

reese_lane2914d ago

My own mechanical typewriter recently ate a thank you note midway through and I honestly considered throwing the whole machine out the window, but then I realized I'd have to dig it out of the snowbank later. Tweezers and determination got me through it too, though I ended up with ink all over my fingers and a bent key that now sticks a little. It's a silly thing to get so worked up over a piece of machinery that predates most of my neighbors, but something about being interrupted mid-sentence just sets me off. At least your aunt's note got finished, which is more than I can say for the letter I was writing to my sister about her garden.

the_jesse13d ago

Agree with you completely @reese_lane29, the way a typewriter just swallows your work at the exact wrong moment is pure frustration. I've got an old Smith Corona that does the same thing, and there's nothing like that feeling of watching your words get chewed up and spat out sideways. You spend all that time lining up the paper just right, getting the ribbon tension perfect, and then it just eats your letter like it's a snack. Makes you wonder if these machines have a soul and it's just a spiteful one. I'd probably take the bent key and ink stains over a smooth writing process any day, at least you got a story out of it.