What was 'in' when you were young? Your parents? Your kids? I thoroughly enjoyed The Mindset Lists of American History: From Typewriters to Text Messages, What Ten Generations of Americans Think is Normal, by Tom McBride & Ron Nief was a great romp through history. From what was new to what each generation took as normal, this was a great look at how things change (and how fast). Could you hitch a horse to a wagon? Would your grandchildren recognize a rotary phone? My mother was right, history is fun!

For some reason the subtitle of the Mindset book got me not only thinking about typewriters, but looking for books as well! First to come my way was Typewriter: a Celebration of the Ultimate Writing Machine, by Paul Robert and Peter Weil. The typewriter is much older than I thought, and there were lots of odd designs in the beginning! It took Remington (known for guns and sewing machines) (some early models even used the foot pedal the carriage return) to make it functional. In all the earliest models you typed 'blind' in that you could not see your work. The first use of the @ symbol was in 1536 (it represented a unit of wine). The first 'chat' could have happened as early as 1895 .... as long as you were connected to the other machine via wires, and no more than 10 miles apart that is. You could actually exchange type back and forth! (Remember, this was the era of Morse Code messages). There are wonderful pictures in this book, but I would have appreciated seeing how the paper fit into some of the earlier, odder models.

Typewriter: the History - the Machines - the Writers by Tony Allan (consultant Richard Polt) was a delightful read! I loved the pictures of the advertising and the trivia ... ! The qwerty row once included a period (after the e). The first significant literary work to be submitted to the publisher in typewritten form was Life on the Mississippi. A typewriter was taken to (and used) at the top of Mt. Everest (1922). Some mysteries (real and fictional) used the typewriter to solve the crime. And if you miss the sound of a manual typewriter? There's an app for that!

Did your parents or grandparents ever tell a "when I was a child ..." story? It was usually something along the lines of "I had to walk five miles to school, and it was uphill. Both ways!!" Mine would be that I typed all my papers (and a few for others) for college on a manual typewriter. With no white out (there was a funny little paper you used, retyped the error on that, then made your correction). And we were not allowed to use the easy erase paper (it smeared extremely easily).

Manual typewriters are making a comeback for one simple reason. They cannot be hacked.

Reading Hermit With Dog