Typewriters are still with us–who cares?
According to an item by the Associated Press, typewriters are still with us; at least for those nostalgians who prefer to continue to pound out letters and manuscripts on a Smith Corona or an old Underwood or a Remington or… Me? Never again! I can well remember, as a kid, dreaming of the day that I’d be a professional writer—an author!—which would also mean my having a typewriter of my own. Access to a portable Smith Corona, which belonged to my father’s union of which he was secretary, came first. The first one that I owned, a large, clunky black office-sized Underwood that I sent away for with one of my first pay cheques from my new job at The Daily Colonist, served me well for several years. But, by then, newer typewriters were smaller, even portable, and much...
Read MoreRemembering Terry Fox, Old Trains, the Galloping Goose
Almost 20 years ago, when I began writing my twice-weekly historical column in the Cowichan Valley Citizen and (for 10 years) a once-weekly retrospective in the Nanaimo Daily News/Harbour City Star, a friend predicted that I’d “be starved for material in four months”. “Not a chance,” I replied. “In four months I’ll have more to work with than when I started.” This wasn’t idle bragging but based upon years of experience. You see, and to give but one example, every time I go to an archives to research, say, one, two or three specific subjects, I come home with a half-dozen—or more—new leads. Without exception! Quite simply, historical research is like digging a hole. The more you dig the bigger it gets. If my friend saw me, today, with red pen in hand while I read a newspaper he’d...
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