Handful of Stalwarts Defy Wintry Mix for Philly Type-IN No. 2

Freezing rain & snow, with a few locusts mixed in, made for a miserable Saturday & nearly iced the Type-IN. But the day was saved by a few folks who escaped meteorological house arrest.  A Mr. Jon Roth astonished all (well, the barmaid and myself) by arriving first, from far-flung Cape May, NJ.  Mr. Roth, a writer and editor, packed a Royal Aristocrat.  Cape May has a wealth of Victorian architecture, but no apparently no typewriter repair shops whatever.   Jon checked out some of the machines, especially mcget’s (er, mine)  Olivetti Lettera 32 and Olympia SM9 and cried out, “Crikey, this is so easy!” and promptly had an epiphany (which the bar maid didn’t even blink at–as these happen in Fergie’s all the time, she said) which we have reproduced in part:

Second machine on deck was a French-made Hermes 3000, purchased (twice) by Philadelphia Inquirer movie writer Steven Rea. Bryn Mawr College had not one, but two Jens representing them: web-designer Jen Yuan, again with her Olivetti Valentine and Jen Callaghan, who runs a writers’ program at the school. Trophy Bikes mechanic and devout cyclist TJ Seningen stopped by to complete the group. I had no clue when scheduling the Type-IN that Feb. 5th was also World Nutella Day–but Ms. Yuan, better-informed, unpacked a jar of this high-calorie chocolate spread, along with bread and knives so that we essentially were celebrating two events in one, as well as an extra day’s intake of carbs. A pair of writers from Geekadelphia were also on hand and refrained from remarking on the hazards of mixing Nutella and manual typing–we hope their story will be discreet about this practice.

The small field precluded a Typing Competition, though we did see several letters completed. No one opted for a splash of Clinique’s budget “Happy” fragrance–so this mailing was totally scentsless! (sorry)  Finally, we did perform a Typewriter Roller Call. This involves a sheet of paper starting in one typing machine, where its owner (or whoever is sitting in front of it at the time) types the make and model, their name and perhaps a sentence or two. (as shown here) Then the page goes from machine to machine, with each person typing a line or two, in that machine’s particular typeface… till the page is full.

This page travelled through several typewriters--and survived!

Now, what would be interesting is to see a few Typewriter Roller Calls, single-spaced, so as to get a lot of typewriter fonts onto a single sheet….

Thanks to all, and now it’s time to get clacking on some letters for International Typewriter Appreciation Month. Why, yes, I can be reached at the address below! :

Michael McGettigan

c/0 Trophy Bikes

3131 Walnut St.

Phila. PA 19104 USA

Footnotes:

Mr. Roth is an editor at Exit Zero, a well-done online guide which will make you want to go to Cape May sooner rather than later.

Ms. Yuan has hacked cats into dogs and shows how here.

Fergie’s Pub is run by Fergus Carey & would be a wonder just for their newspaper ads which (truthfully) declare: “NO TV!”, but they don’t stop there, making sure to have plenty of craft beers on hand, as well as good food & really sturdy tables.