Recent Type-In!
Posted on: May 24, 2018
Hello friends! Not only am I a book nerd, but I also run with a crowd of typewriter nerds! This casual group of Michigan typewriter collectors and fans meets a handful a times a year to play with different typewriters, share tips for maintenance and repair, drool over each other’s machines, welcome new faces, and enjoy each other’s company.
Last Saturday we had a Type-In at New Holland Brewing’s Knickerbocker restaurant in Grand Rapids, MI. The reason I didn’t get a ton of photos? I was enjoying amazing beer, their great menu, and the wonderful ambience of the restaurant. If you’ve never had New Holland Beer, I highly recommend, and if you’re in the Grand Rapids area, their brewpub is all around fantastic. They let us take over a fantastic well lit space, and as always at our Type-Ins, anyone who is floating around is welcome to type on the typewriters and see what these mechanical marvels are all about. We had a whole group of 20-somethings and their parents stop by, the parents had fond memories of learning to type in school, and their children were asking where the backspace was.
This was one of our most successful Type-Ins, lots of new faces, a huge variety of machines of different eras and colors, and a number of international machines. Along with my little black Remette, I took some fun pattered scrapbooking paper to put through the machines. I’ve been having fun recently, seeing what kinds of different materials will go through the machines (it’s like Will It Blend? but not), I’ve done wrapping paper, magazine advertisements, maybe I’ll do aluminum foil or parchment paper next?
this square piece of paper was just begging to be put into the machine on a diagonal!
To check out more photos, and more detailed information about this even, head over to my friend Bill’s site for part 1 and part 2. While I was chugging beer, he was taking all the good photos. Bill is a true typewriter aficionado!
Here are some more pictures I took.
is it just me, or does the shape of this machine look like the ships in the beginning of the movie Dune?
Just look at these stylish lines!
10 Responses to "Recent Type-In!"
May 25, 2018 at 12:29 am
Typewriters are cool! Thanks for sharing. I still have the Adler Gabriele 25 I had as a student and an Olivetti Lettera 32 I inherited from my Mum. I had to turf my IBM Selectric II It was a wonderful typewriter but a cable broke and I really didn’t have anywhere to store the machine.
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May 25, 2018 at 3:46 pm
What do you think of your Olivetti? 🙂
May 25, 2018 at 4:20 pm
It’s good to type on – easier than the Adler which needs a fair amount of finger-movement. I should add that another typewriter I had – and traded for the Adler – was an Olympia Traveller de Luxe with orange case – the 1969 model. Wish I still had it, but I was a student at the time and had worn it out… hence the Adler, which was about double the weight (and still works, though it needs a ribbon).
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May 25, 2018 at 11:24 am
What fun. Don’t see any Royals there, but I bet there were some. I learned on one in my freshman year in high school.
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May 25, 2018 at 3:47 pm
Yes, we always have a handful of Royals show up. I’d have brought mine, but I don’t have a case for it and it was drizzling outside that day.
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May 27, 2018 at 8:33 pm
This sounds like such a great group! I actually got given my mum’s old typewriter and I’m really excited to use it at some point, because it’s a thing of beauty, but need to get a new ribbon for it first and set it up (I haven’t got the faintest idea how to use it though 😉 ). But yeah, these look lovely!
May 27, 2018 at 8:46 pm
most standard ribbons can be bought on Amazon or other online retailers, and there are a ton of Youtube videos about how to change out the ribbon, clean the keys, and do other basic maintenance. once you’ve got a ribbon in it, jusst start pressing buttons and see what each one does, because trust me, you’re not gonna break it. Typewriters are fun! and you are so right, they are things of beauty. happy typing!
May 27, 2018 at 8:50 pm
Thank you so much for all that information! That’s really kind of you 😀
the Little Red Reviewer 
May 24, 2018 at 9:58 pm
Very well done. Did you ever type on a leaf? Florian (from Switzerland) used to type on a variety of large leaves, especially the neat big maple leaves.
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May 25, 2018 at 3:45 pm
ooh, i hadn’t even thought about trying to type on a leaf! what a neat idea! and I can see that beautiful maple tree from my living room window. . .
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