wheresthe1key-blog
Where's the 1 Key?
A typewriter blog about portable machines, their care, and their quirks. The contents of this blog are clickity-clak'd by feminist, poet, and typewriter enthusiast: Alexandra M Woolner
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Photo dump of cleaning my Adler Tippa (with TJ the Siamese attack bear for scale). This model (from mid-1960's) was super easy to clean. Light, mostly plastic case and body. Key arms were easy to get to, low profile mechanics. I got this one as a gift, and I think it was about $50 at an antique sale. Very please with this hyper portable machine who has a happy, large type.
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Hmm. "Typewriters and the MEN who loved them." Yeah, ok, but what about all the famous women authors who typed on iconic machines to write their works? Couldn't think of one? Zora Neal Hurston, Sylvia Plath, Joyce Carol Oates, Virginia Woolf, just to name a few! Looks like I have a new info graphic project! Stay tuned ;)
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I love finding clues to previous owners when cleaning newly acquired machines. My Adler Tippa came with a luggage tag and my Remington had DIY labels affixed all over the place, including under the felt of the top plate! It makes me want to reach out to them in the dim hope that they are still around, at that address, and wonder whatever happened to their old machines. Then I realize people move (or die) or don't want creeper typewriter nerds bothering them. I'm still going to enjoy these forgotten clues at their pasts though!
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Some shameless self promotion... super happy to have been part of this year's #EasthamptonBookfest and then get a shout out in the Gazette! My events, a typewriter maintenance demo and typewriting event, Postcards to Easthampton were super fun. Getting the community to interact with typewriters (some for the first time) and relive memories of their old machines was the best. Thanks to ECA+ and the Mass Cultural Council for funding the events and lending support to my nerding.
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Hipster trolling
I am already realizing, within an hour of starting this blog, that it is going to be very hard for me to not troll hipsters on Tumblr. Oh, you think that Olivetti looks charming next to your bookshelf of novels you haven't read? You're sticking flowers in it... mmm. #choices
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Quick rant: Alllll of these obsolete objects and I can't get ONE typewriter? No yeah, thank you for that Rolodex and 18 types of laser discs. We definitely need both a camel AND a dromedary. #emojirants
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Is it just me, or is a jeweled escapement just kind of a fancy marketing ploy? Sounds super fancy, reminds one of an expensive watch, are we really getting more? Anyway! Smith-Corona Vantage circa 60's with a jeweled escapement. Found at estate sale. She wanted $5 for it so I talked her up to $10.
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Definitely time to change the ribbon. Royal KMM desk model, circa 1942. This is my only desk typewriter (for now?) #royaltypewriter #RoyalKMM
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People sometimes ask me when I got my first typewriter or where I got my love of typewriters in the first place. The answer is that they were always around in my childhood, thanks to this guy pictured above: my grandfather, Frank M. Woolner. Growing up in the 80’s and 90’s, typewriters were quickly becoming an outdated technology. So, to look at me a lot of people find it surprising that I don’t remember exactly when I first used a typewriter. My grandfather wrote for the Worcester Telegram and Gazette for years and years, and in his basement office (of the house we shared with my mother) he had at least two desk models and the Royal Quiet DeLuxe pictured above. The Royal he received as a gift just before joining up to go fight the nazis in WWII. Here he’s pictured, as in many very silly snapshots from this era, jokingly taunting the enemy, this time pointing his most valuable weapon at them: his portable typewriter. It’s one of my favorite photos of him, and captured a spirit that I think runs deep in our family.
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