Freshman year
The Underwood typewriter
Gregg typing book open on the right
Insert two pages of typing paper at once
Save time to access a new page
Set margins, Clear tabs
Check ribbon
Set to black, not red
So much to remember
Qwerty keyboard
Practice home keys
Asdf for the left hand, jkl; for the right
Pointer fingers reach over, up & down
Ring fingers reach up & down
Middle fingers reach up and down
Thumbs use space bar between words
Pinky uses Shift key for capitals
Use right lever to doub le space
Dual Eraser pencil
Sharpen the eraser end
Use to erase mistakes
Smudge or rub a hole in the paper
Small plastic bristles on one end
Use to wipe away the eraser crumbles
Not successful at this task
Practice at home using what we could afford
Baby Hermes portable
Accuracy stressed initially
Add carbon between pages
Like secretaries use to make copies
Not easy to erase mistakes
Start the process over
Frustrating
Timed trials to increase speed
Learn to use all keys quickly
Practice phrases
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog
Or
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their county
Just not developmentally ready
I remember the emotions
Stressfully inadequate & loathing
I remember the process
Those phrases return automatically
Computers changed most everything
Single space lines
Use printer to copy
Finger pressure not required
Easily edit mistakes
Accuracy & speed achieved
This brought back great memories. We were assigned seats based on our typing ability: the better you were the further back you sat. I was in the second row from the front!
ReplyDeleteOh my, I would have been on the front row! Thank you for sharing.
DeleteYikes - glad I missed those lessons. Still very fast at hunt and peck!
ReplyDeleteDespite the fact that i didn't experience those days, your words still managed to create tension in me.
Thanks! Something I haven't forgotten. But many years later I turned out to be a great typist
DeleteSo glad that I had typing lessons, but they were saved for your senior year in high school. Now I really wish that my girls and my students were taught to type. We give them computers, but we don't teach them to type. Seems to be a dying art.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's so difficult to pinpoint when typing skills should be addressed nowdays. Kids start using computers at an early age and develop the one finger approach. transitioning to using the keyboard as we were taught is almost foreign to them.
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