Typing Class

Do you remember typewriters?

They were sort of like computers except nothing was ever saved other than on the blank piece of paper you inserted in the roller.

More to the point:
        Do you remember typing class?

asdf  jkl;  asdf  jkl;  asdf  jkl;  asdf  jkl;                     

qwert  qwert  qwert  yuiop  yuiop  yuiop

Exercise after exercise to train your fingers to hit the correct keys.

qwert  qwert  qwert  yuiop  yuiop  yuiop

The rules of the game were that you copied the exercise page exactly.

A maximum of two errors was allowed.

We spent the fifty minute class hour typing away, making perfect copies of the exercise pages. 
Some of my friends caught on quickly and by the end of the class handed in perfect copies of ten to twenty pages in the book.

I tried over and over to get one page perfect.
I might be almost to the bottom of the sheet when Error Number Three slipped from my fingers.
         RIP out page!
         INSERT a new clean sheet!
         START again!
         S I G H !!


Last week I was reminded of typing class when my computer locked up and I feared that 290 pages of my novel would have to be typed into my computer again.

But my resident computer guru saved the day, fixing my computer and there was my novel safe and sound.

On a computer, once you make a correction and save it, it stays corrected! Hooray!

If you are too young to have struggled with typewriters and typing class, consider yourself blessed.

Computers are a huge inprovement.


Drop me a note at my new email address: collinsleej@gmail.com to tell me your computer/typewriter adventures. Or leave a comment.