1950s Remington

October 30, 2020

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In the mid-1960s I decided I would learn how to type. I was in eighth grade and wanted to type an essay assignment. I decided I would use my father's typewriter. It was gray and seemed large. I don't remember if it was a Remington or some other brand. I recall being very excited to be typing. My teacher didn't seem to mind the errors in my assignment.

Using a typewriter was not interesting to me because of the speed. It was more the idea that typewriters were for adults, not children. There was something about making words in a different way.

At the time I had no idea I would become a writer. It is something you probably don't think about unless you grow up around artists or other writers. But the idea of the story was embedded in my mind by my Dad who was telling me stories since I could talk. Everything seemed to have a story behind it. If we went to town and ran into someone he knew, he would tell me where that person was born, who were his parents, what he or she did for a living, and whom they married.

Decades later, when I began writing, his stories were my guides.