Wednesday, December 11, 2019

The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: TYPEWRITER

For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.

I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?

For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on The Butterfly Hours tab above.

This (final!) month's prompts are train, trophy, typewriter, umbrella, Vietnam, war, washing machine, widow, window.
TYPEWRITER

a favorite children's book
that includes a typewriter
My experience with a typewriter is limited to my high school typing class. If there was a typewriter in my house growing up, I don't recall it. So I don't have any romanticized memories about typewriters.

The high school typing class was one of those offering deemed “practical,” so I took it. (Pre-internet, of course!) And you know, I've never been sorry. I got my job at Walt Disney World (Travel Company) because of my typing
my favorite movie
that features
a typewriter
skills. With the onset of word processing programs, others of my generation had to acquire typing skills... but I already had them! I've always been grateful for my typing speed when I'm working on a story, and my brain moves so so fast – far faster than my hand can do and still be legible... but even with errors, I can generally interpret my typing, even when that typing has been achieved with my eyes closed (which is often the way I type when I am drafting!).

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2 comments:

  1. RuthDecember 11, 2019 at 7:19 AM

    Typing is the most useful thing I ever learned to do. My high school wanted me to take something more academic that period, but I've never regretted picking typing!

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  2. skanny17December 11, 2019 at 10:29 AM

    Typing with my eyes closed. Could be a title of something or other. LOVE it. I took typing senior year in college when teaching jobs were hard to come by. So I figured I could be a secretary at the univ or college my husband would work at. Luckily for me I got two teaching jobs. BUT I never forgot my typing and am so grateful I can type so fast. It serves me well on many occasions. However, sometimes I am a bit verbose due to the speed that I type!!! I never took a class on editing. LOL. But I do try. We did not have a typewriter at home that I can recall. At college electric typewriters were in and I think I had one. I was a horrible and slow typist and we had such a hard time with making corrections. We are so lucky now, but I often prefer composing by hand. Something about the fluidity of motion by hand.....purple ink is also a favorite on white legal pads!!! Did you ever type on a selectric type writer that had a round ball that move? Those were a big improvement, but one's fingers back in the day got a great work out on the older typewriters. That is for sure.

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