[SamAdams76]

I’ll be honest. The most valuable class I took in high school, the one that has lasted me my whole life, was typing back in 1961.

Same here. I took two years in typing in high school during the 1970s. The first year was on manual typewriters and the second year we moved up to the electric ones (IBM Selectric II which was state-of-the-art).

Normally girls took this class and as a boy, I took a more than a little ribbing over it. But I really liked typing and got up to around 80 wpm be end of my second year. To this day, I amaze others with my ability to touch-type without even having to look at the keyboard.

[virgil]

I took typing in 8th grade. Important skill that I use all of the time. In my senior year of high school, I took a class in office machines. Learned to key punch on a number pad very fast without looking at the pad. We used those old hand crank adding machines, and the old cash registers. Hand held calculators were just coming out. Memories

[DoodleBob]

That's three of us. The only problem was that we didn't focus on numbers - I think we ran out of time. However, with the number keypad most computer keyboards have nowadays it isn't a big omission.

One bummer about the demise of typewriters is that you got a workout on the Selectric. You could feel your forearm bulking up. That said, I MUCH prefer the computer and autocorrect.

I used to be able to type 80wpm. In fact I *think* I type faster than my admin. I'll have to time myself tomorrow.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

80 wpm! Wow, impressed. The best I could ever muster always maybe 35 no matter how hard I tried (I think it matched my reading speed 😉). At least I can stil, touch type rather accurately, except that skill is fading since I retired last year. On FR, it's usually two-thumb typing on the iPad which is horrible. My mom was amazing at the typewriter. I think she could hit 90 accurately for some good stretches. Not surprisingly, she was a good pianist as well.