Okay ... this if for all you people who remember typewriters and think they were fairly recent technology. The Georgia Mountain History Museum, which has resided in the old Gainesville Fire Station for to these last 20 years or so, has some old typewriters - manual, not electric ... the kind that go clickety-clack when you punch the keys.
That museum is going to be melded into the new Northeast Georgia History Center that is now under construction on the Brenau University campus, and the old fire station museum will close for a while till the new building is completed later this year. In fact, they are going to have an event they call an "intermission party" at the old Museum from 4 to 8 on Saturday, January 25, and I'd suggest you go take that in.
Anyway, back to the typewriter. The other day Steve Gurr was talking about a group of computer-age kids that were touring the old Museum, and several of them showed a great deal of interest in the old typewriter. So, one of the museum volunteers took a good bit of time showing these youngsters just how that classic piece of office equipment worked. One of the great advantages of an old-fashioned, mechanical typewriter is you can actually see how the thing works.
When the volunteer got through explaining the intricacies and advantages of the typewriter, he asked the kids what they thought about it, and one of the youngsters answered: "Cool, but where is the screen?" And another youngster asked: "What do you mean: when you get to the end of a line, you've got to throw the carriage back?"
This is Gordon Sawyer, from a window on historic Green Street.
Monday
August 4th, 2025
10:13PM
