This Olympia is my new pride and joy:

I’ve been keeping my eye out for a typewriter for a few weeks, trying to find one in working condition.  An old black Royal tempted me, but the Craigslist post warned “needs TLC.”  This fifty year old beauty was advertised at $15, and was in perfect condition.

I wanted to make business cards and tags out of used cereal boxes and the like. I haven’t had any luck running the cardboard through the printer, so I decided I needed to step back with the technology.  The Olympia handles the cardboard like a champ.

The best part is the colour!  I didn’t examine the picture on the post very closely, so it was a surprise!

In high school I learned to type on a typewriter, so I’ve been enamoured by them for years.

I went to pick the Olympia up at man named Bryan’s house. His children were all playing on their jungle gym when we drove up, but they all gathered around our car as soon as he brought it out.  There were 5 of them, and they were so puzzled by the typewriter. “What is it? What does it do?”  I guess he hadn’t shown it to them before.  I let them plink around on it, and they each expressed to their father how much they wanted one.  I’m still giggling about it.

I was able to find a new ribbon for the Olympia at an office supply store.  I was afraid the machine was too dated to get a new one, but was surprised to find they had quite the selection of ribbons.  So someone else out there is also typing away! Is it you?

I do have an embarrassing confession regarding the Olympia.  When the children were playing with the typewriter, one of them asked “What does the Mister key do?”  Immediately, I thought that it must be because secretaries were writing so many letters, usually to men!  I got myself all in a huff, thinking about how misogynistic those times were.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the Mr. key to work; it didn’t type anything.  James was suspicious of the key actually being used to type “Mr,” so looked it up.  Turns out it’s the Margin Release key.  So I feel like an idiot.  But I did find an amazing typewriter for 15 bucks, so that lessens the pain.