A Sad Goodbye to My Daisywheels

This morning was a pretty sad morning because I’d finally said goodbye to two friends who’ve been with me for a lot of years. In this techno age of fancy computers, micro-chips, and fast-paced gadgetry, I’d typed my most recent screenplays and manuscripts with my daisywheel typewriters, a Smith Corona SL 480 and a Brother 310 AX Series. If you’re not familiar with these old electric typewriters and daisywheels just picture a bicycle rim with its numerous spokes, only smaller. Similar to a bike rim, a three-inch daisywheel has numerous spokes, with each spoke having a protruding letter, number, or symbol at its end. (A lot of vintage IBM typewriters had a rotating ball instead of the multi-stemmed daisywheel.) These daisywheels, correctable ribbons, and other parts for these aging typewriters are hard to find in office supply stores nowadays and some stores have completely stop selling electric typewriters and their accessories all together.
My Smith Corona was so cool and reliable. She had stylish curves around her edges and she never gave me any lip or back talk over the years. I had typewriters before that would grumble and make funny noises about this or that but my Smith Corona never complained about anything. She just came to work, clocked in and let me tap her keys for hours at a time and would never fuss about a thing.
Well, things were okay up until about a week ago. That’s when the daisywheels on the Brother 310 and the Smith Corona 480 started to rattle a bit and lose their proper fitting next to the ribbon cartridge, which means that a loose-seated daisywheel could potentially cause a writer to get an ‘A’ on the paper instead of the intended ‘J’, and so on.
I’m going to miss seeing the fonts of these electric typewriters. They are very distinctive and unlike any fonts found on today’s computers. I’m going to miss that monotone pitch every time I would tap those old keys. Yes, I’m an old dinosaur but I guess there comes a time when an old dinosaur must make some changes and adapt to its new surroundings in order to survive. – Randy Camp
Learn more at http://www.goodreads.com/randolphcamp