Subject: Where have all the Selectrics gone?

From: "Jon Titus" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue Jun 3 09:33:43 2003

My Selectric III went in the local metal-recycle bin quite a few years ago.
It was getting sticky and needed a thorough cleaning.  The local IBM service
center wanted $125 just to take a look at it, so enough was enough.  I have
not used a typewriter in the last 8 or so years, and don't miss it.

I had a second Selectric my brother gave me, but during a move, one of the
cast-metal parts gave up the ghost.  It seemed too expensive to get it
replaced, so it, too, went to the metal recycle bin.  I suspect many other
typewriters, Selectrics et al., met the same fate.

My mother, 89, still uses a manual typewriter, but her sight is failing and
she has a hard time getting the right roy of keys.  Sometimes we have to sit
at the keyboard and "decipher" her notes.  She recently found a typewriter
repair shop on Long Island (NY) that would repair and clean her manual unit.
She got new type and a cleaned unit for about $85.  That's a deal.

Jon
Jon Titus

36 Sunset Drive

Milford, MA 01757-1362 USA

Phone: +1-508-478-8040

E-mail: [email-masked]

Member, National Association of Science Writers