Interview with author Richard Polt

This is my second and successful attempt to stream and archive an interview with author and typewriter enthusiast and overall excellent contributor to the typoshpere - Richard Polt.  My apologies to those of you who tried to watch the live event.  I typed and typed and typed on my Olympia but Richard couldn't hear me.....actually, I had too many tabs open on my laptop.  Darned technology!

Perfekt Typewriter Day

Typewriter Travels and Visits

All in all, it has been a busy typewriter week.  I had the opportunity to travel to Tom Furrier's typewriter shop, Cambridge Typewriter, near Boston to attend his Type-Out yesterday.  It was great to visit his shop and hang out with the typewriter crowd.  I'll let Tom post his pictures and describe the event on his own blog first, but I will tease you with a picture featuring my Singer (Royal Safari) and my Corona Four.  Thanks Tom for hosting such a fun event.  

It's been a busy typewriter week at school too.  A few of my students are continuing to take apart the broken Super Sterling that I had set out for them.  One of my students is becoming a real typewriter collector himself and brought his 1930 Royal P to show me.  That's one proud typewriter collector.  He also brought by his 1970's Olympia SM8 which I grouped with my 1960's SM8 and my SM3 for this nice Olympia x 3 photo.  

Typewriter Deconstructed

I blogged about the mint condition Smith-Corona Super Sterling that Jericho, VT resident Jon Ojala gave me a few posts ago.  (Actually, it is in Sea Foam Green condition - still quite nice.)  Jon had given me this lovely typewriter when I described my plan of having students disassemble a blue Super Sterling in disrepair that I had acquired.  Today I set the blue Sterling out on a desk with two screwdrivers and let some of my "typewriter hounds" know that they could take it apart.  Boy did they ever get excited about this idea.  They wolfed down their lunch so they could go to my office to get started.  Later in the day they begged their teacher to let them come down and work some more.  All in all, it took these three 8 to 9-year olds about 25 minutes to get the case off of the Sterling.  Surprisingly, it actually types better without the case.  Something must have been binding it up.  It also lost a ball bearing out of the carriage in the process.  I promise to post more photos as it gets further deconstructed!

Wait!  Don't take this one apart!

Labor Day Corona

Labor Day, a day to celebrate the worker and the end of summer- and yard sales!  I live near the college town of Northfield, VT which puts on a great Labor Day celebration.  I figured a college town would have to have typewriters at it's sales, and I was right!  After checking four or five tag and yard sales, I followed a sign for a barn sale and came across a woman who was clearing out some things from her parent's old barn.  One of those things was this mint condition Corona Four Bank from the 1920's.  I figure around 1924-27 with the serial # V1A08498.  I couldn't believe the price....$15   Yup, I didn't leave any zeros off, fifteen dollars.  What a way to celebrate labor day!

Not a typewriter, but check out this little rail car that the
fire department uses on the tracks that pass the station!

Blue turns to Lovely Green

It was fun to dream about the mystery typewriter that I found on Craigslist.  The only thing I knew for sure was that it was blue.  I liked "Words are Winged" suggestion that it might be a blue Royal Model P from the 30's.  I was pretty sure it was not John Lennon's typewriter!  I would have been psyched if it was a blue Quiet DeLuxe from the 50's.  I even thought about a Lettera 22, those come in that fantastic Olivetti blue.  But Ted was right, it turned out to be a blue Brother Charger. The ad did say vintage and not antique after all.  But what constitutes antique?  A 1966 Mustang is considered an antique but a 1966 Royal is vintage.  Where do you draw the line?

But read on, my blue disappointment turned to 

excitement when I found this mint condition green Super Sterling!

Blue Typewriter?

I responded to an Craigslist posting from this past weekend about antique items for sale to ask if they had sold the typewriter that was mentioned.  They wrote me right back and said that they did have the typewriter.  It was a portable in a case and it is blue.  They promised to send me a picture and tell me what brand it is.  My question to the typosphere is: What kind of blue typewriter might this be?  Even I do not know the answer yet but I promise to report back.  Looking forward to your comments!

Just walk away....

This weekend's typewriter safari proved to be pretty frustrating, ending in a near miss that had my head shaking.  I started my weekend going to a huge church tag sale at a place called the Clutter Barn.  I had looked longingly at that barn when it was closed, just imagining the typewriters that must be lurking.  As it turned out, there were no machines to be had.  No worries, I was not finished.  I drove by an estate sale and stopped on a whim.  "Yeah, we have two downstairs, one manual and one electric" they called when I asked if they had any typewriters.  But when I looked, only one remained...you guessed it, the manual one was gone.  Still, my hopes were high as a local yard sale the next day advertised all items $1-$3 including a "nice typewriter."  The ad also warned that there should be no early birds, so I stopped by about ten minutes before the sale was to begin.  "Oh, I'm sorry, this girl really wanted it so I sold it to her about ten minutes ago even though it was early."  Then I did something I regretted, I asked what kind it was...."Olympic, or Olympia, some German kind" I never should have asked, I should have just walked away.

P.S.

I also went to the GoodWill shop and found this really cool 1920's Thomas Edison Ediphone.  New collection perhaps?  It's still at that store for $80 if anyone is interested!