[libstripper]

Oh, how I (age 63 1/2) remember the bad old days of multiple carbon packs and how one typo would force a typist to spend five minutes correcting the error. Suffering that kind of penalty for a single error caused many secretaries in the bad old days to become very good typists. Computers make things so easy.

[battlegearboat]

Oh yeah.

I was a yeoman in the Navy. They locked us in a classroom in San Diego "A" School where we typed on typewriters with unlabeled keys...eight hours a day until we could type 50 WPM with no errors.

Fast forward to several years later when I was the Admiral's Yeoman at Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico. The Navy had sent down some brass from Washington with a big parchment treaty (A beautiful document from The Government Printing Office) that was to be signed by the Navy and the Puerto Rican government officials.

The PR's objected to some part of the agreement and demanded that a certain paragraph be inserted before they would sign it.

The night before, I got pretty well lubed up at the EM Club and was in no condition to do any delicate typing that this required. The Admiral's office had the only typewriter on the base with a carriage big enough to handle the oversized document, so they sent for me at 0500 hrs. to amend the document.

Well a mistake or two was made and parchment doesn't handle erasures well. The next day, The San Juan Star led off their story about the treaty with this opening phrase: "In a poorly typed document, the Navy and ...blah blah blah".

The new CO, Admiral Ronald J. Hayes, a Rear Admiral at that time (later became CINCPAC), had me transferred the next day to the Communications Department.

It was a blessing in disguise, as life became more easy for me there.

[redheadtoo]

Suffering that kind of penalty for a single error caused many secretaries in the bad old days to become very good typists. Computers make things so easy

I took my first typing class in junior high school. I later took typing classes in high school and in an adult education center. I know touch typing but my total lack of manual coordination prevented me from ever becoming good at it. I now accept the fact that 30 words a minute is going to remain my top speed.

Computers and word processing programs have been my salvation. Thanks to technology I am now a published writer. Something I could never have achieved if I had to rely on my marginal typing skills and an typewriter.