Vermont's Fall Type-In on Sept. 18th

Fall Type-In and the Boston Typewriter Orchestra

I am excited to be partnering with the Burlington Book Festival to hold my fall Type-In.  We will be at the Fletcher Free Library in beautiful Burlington, Vermont from noon until 3pm on September 18th.  There will be lots of typewriters to explore and you are encouraged to bring your own to show as well.

I am doubly excited to have connected the festival with the Boston Typewriter Orchestra who will be performing on the evening of September 17th along with a guest appearance of public radio's Martha Barnette co-host of  "A Way With Words."  Follow this link for tickets and more information.

Vermont's Spring Type-In is this Saturday, April 30th

I am looking forward to seeing typospherians both young and old at the spring Type-In on April 30th from 10AM - 1:30 PM.  This expanded type-in will be held at the Fletcher Free Library in Burlington, Vermont. Exciting events include:

• A visit via video by typewriter author Richard Polt.
• Activities for children based on the book "Click, Clack, Moo."
• Speed typing contest
• and more!

Join us with your typewriter or use some of ours!

Spring Type-In Announced!

Lots of Fun at the Second Type-In

Four skilled typists tried entered the speed typing contest and won lovely gifts from 

the Paper Peddler shop in Williston, Vermont

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!

Typewriter Giveaway

I am excited to announce that I will be giving two typewriters away at the September 27th Type-In in Burlington, VT.  As luck would have it, Steven Herbert read about the spring type-in through Vermont's Seven Days newspaper and contacted me about finding a good home for his father's two typewriters.

Since Steven heard about me through the spring type-in, I thought it would be perfect turn to give his donated typewriters away at the fall type-in.  I will need to work on the Royal as it is suffering from a bit of rust.  But, as you can see by the type sample below, the Remington Super-Riter is in fine shape even after years of sitting in storage!  Make your plans to come up to Burlington on September 27th so you can win one of these beauties!

Richard Polt Live-Web Interview at the Type-In

Richard Polt

Responding to a comment on this blog, I asked Richard Polt if we would live-stream his presentation at the September 27th Type-In and he agreed.  The interview will be live streamed on YouTube and will be preserved on this site.  Thanks Richard for agreeing to this!  For those of you who do not know Richard Polt's work, you can check out his recent interview on the Antiques and the Arts Weekly web site.  You should also check out one of Richard's typewriter blogs.  With this interview, the Type-In will be a blast.  If you can make the trip to Burlington, Vermont on September 27th you should!  You can bring a typewriter or use one of the many that will be at the type-in.  I have been receiving many gift typewriters lately and I have a 1970's Smith-Corona in mind as a door prize.  Make your travel plans and hotel reservations now as this is also the height of fall foliage, a beautiful time to visit Vermont.

Remington 3 at the Type-In

This lovely two-tone green 1929 Remington #3 showed up at the Type-In almost by accident. Angela Palm came to get some coffee with her two little boys and noticed all of the typewriters.  She writes in an office upstairs from Maglianero's and went to get her Remington.  Angela had bought it at a local antique shop but it had a twisted ribbon.  Sam fixed that right away and she and her boys were happily typing on this fine machine. An especially nice detail on this typewriter is the replacement shift key from the the "American Writing Machine Company."  Putting advertisements on a shift key was a common practice for vendors and seems very fitting for this typewriter who is now in the hands of a writer.

Type-In News & Pictures

I was excited to see an article in Vermont's Seven Days newspaper about last weekend's type-in.  I am glad the event has gotten such a great response.  I will definitely be holding another type-in this fall.  

I'd also like to share some pictures of the fine machines that people brought to the type-in.  This first typewriter was brought in by Ryan McPhee. It might look common at first glance, being a Sears typewriter, but this "President" model has some special features.

First off, this is really a cross between Smith-Corona Silent Super and Galaxy 12 under the hood.  Secondly, this model types in cursive font.  Lastly, this particular typewriter has some unusual keys.  More specifically, the keys are unusual but the slugs are not.  Can you spot the difference?

Type-In Part One: The People

Vermont's first Type-In was a great success.  Eleven people came to the Maglianero Cafe in Burlington, Vermont to treasure some fine manual typewriters. Debbie came first and typed all afternoon on my SM3. Jenn brought her daughter Gillianne who looked like she was well on her way to getting vintage typewriter for her writing.  Ryan came up from the Connecticut River valley with a brown and tan twin to my black and white Underwood Quiet Tab Deluxe.  Margot came from the local paper and typed in between interviews.  Nicki brought her son Derek who got his Smith-Corona repaired.  Sam, of Samfixit, repaired a number of machines besides Derek's.  It was fantastic to see so many typing enthusiasts leaving with smiles on their faces and their newly repaired machines.  I'd like to give a big shout-out to Maddie and everyone at the Maglianero Cafe for hosting us. Everyone had a great time and asked that I schedule another type-in soon- and I will!

Sam-fix-it!

A back seat full of typewriters!

Tell Them What You're Looking For!

I had high hopes for finding typewriters this past weekend. That's right, I said typewriters. Montpelier had a city-wide tag sale with forty-two locations. I had dreamed of coming home with a number of typewriters in the trunk of my car. I started out early and went to almost every sale. I did find a couple of typewriters for sale, a 1970's Webster, a brand for a Japanese Brother machine and a 1980's Royal that was mostly plastic. Despite not seeing any interesting machines, I let people know what I was looking for. As always, most people are delighted when you talk about typewriters. A woman brought out her 1930's Remington Boxy Number 5. She had no plans to sell it but I did get to tell her about my Type-In and show her how to change the ribbon. I went to one last church tag sale which was closing up, again no typewriters but there was a nice woman named Pam who said she might still have her old Olympia at home.  She gave me her number and said she would check. Well, she did have that Olympia, Serial #3036572, a 1967 SM8. 

You can see from the pictures, this machine is in 

perfect condition.

  

I have never seen mechanicals this clean!

I have a new ribbon on order and will send a typecast from this machine soon!

Type-In Buzz - June 6th at Maglianero Cafe

The Buzz is building for Vermont's first Type-In at the Maglianero Cafe on June 6th from 2-5PM! It's amazing to hear from everyone I tell about the event "Oh, I love typewriters."  Drop in to this event if you love typewriters too.  You can bring one of your own or play with the typewriters at the event - I am bringing three or four myself!

Zephyr by the Lake

I had great typewriter fortune today.  I found a 1941 Corona Zephyr Deluxe on Craigslist and drove up to the Lake Champlain islands to pick it up.  It was owned by a nice woman who was selling her lake house and clearing out some items.  This Zephyr is in great shape.  A lot of the keys were stuck, but I was pretty sure that was due to disuse. I was right and a little bit of cleaning and a light lube got the keys working again.  I will be posting more about this typewriter soon and will certainly be bringing it to the Type-In. Until then, I will be typing by the lake!

Type-In part of Seven Days Lit News!

I was pleased to see that Margot Harrison mentioned Vermont's first Type-In on her Lit News blog post for Seven Days. Margot writes

"When I was 9, I got my first typewriter, a green manual Olivetti. I prized it as my only way to produce the printed word. And if someone had told me that in the year 2015 young people would be using manual typewriters for fun and not because they had to, I might've spat chocolate milk at them."

I hope that Margot can bring her Olivetti to the Type-In and I am sure she will not spit milk at us!

Writing at the Type-In!

Type-In Less than a Month Away!

Vermont Type-In, June 6th

Announcing Vermont's First Type-In

Vermont's First Type-In

I am excited to announce that Vermont's first Type-In will be held on Saturday, June 6th from 2-5PM at the Maglianero Cafe in Burlington.  There will be more details to come but there certainly will be typewriters to show and possibly trade along with typing contests.  Join Vermont's typosphere and bring your typewriter to Maglianero's on the 6th!

What is a Type-In?