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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsObituary from 2013: Manson Whitlock, Typewriter Repairman, Dies at 96
I love reading the obituaries.
Hat tip, Watch An Engaging Documentary About Obituaries At The Movies This Week
This ain't typing; it's writing:
Manson Whitlock, Typewriter Repairman, Dies at 96
By MARGALIT FOX SEPT. 8, 2013
For eight decades, Manson Whitlock kept the 20th centurys ambient music going: the ffft of the roller, the ding of the bell, the decisive zhoop ... bang of the carriage return, the companionable clack of the keys. ... From the early 1930s until shortly before his death last month at 96, Mr. Whitlock, at his shop in New Haven, cared for the instruments, acoustic and electric, on which that music was played.
Mr. Whitlock was often described as Americas oldest typewriter repairman. He was inarguably one of the countrys longest-serving. ... Over time he fixed more than 300,000 machines, tending manuals lovingly, electrics grudgingly and computers never.
I dont even know what a computer is, Mr. Whitlock told The Yale Daily News, the student paper, in 2010. Ive heard about them a lot, but I dont own one, and I dont want one to own me.
....
In recent years, however, until he closed the shop in June, Mr. Whitlock was its entire staff, working with only a bust of Mark Twain for company. He reported each day in a suit and tie, as he had from the beginning. On Sundays he sometimes cheated and dispensed with the tie. ... Mr. Whitlock was older than most of his charges, though by no means all of them. (Among the shops resident machines was a 1910 Oliver, with its type bars arrayed vertically, like harp strings.) He owed his longevity, he told The New Haven Register last year, to cheap Scotch and strong tobacco.
By MARGALIT FOX SEPT. 8, 2013
For eight decades, Manson Whitlock kept the 20th centurys ambient music going: the ffft of the roller, the ding of the bell, the decisive zhoop ... bang of the carriage return, the companionable clack of the keys. ... From the early 1930s until shortly before his death last month at 96, Mr. Whitlock, at his shop in New Haven, cared for the instruments, acoustic and electric, on which that music was played.
Mr. Whitlock was often described as Americas oldest typewriter repairman. He was inarguably one of the countrys longest-serving. ... Over time he fixed more than 300,000 machines, tending manuals lovingly, electrics grudgingly and computers never.
I dont even know what a computer is, Mr. Whitlock told The Yale Daily News, the student paper, in 2010. Ive heard about them a lot, but I dont own one, and I dont want one to own me.
....
In recent years, however, until he closed the shop in June, Mr. Whitlock was its entire staff, working with only a bust of Mark Twain for company. He reported each day in a suit and tie, as he had from the beginning. On Sundays he sometimes cheated and dispensed with the tie. ... Mr. Whitlock was older than most of his charges, though by no means all of them. (Among the shops resident machines was a 1910 Oliver, with its type bars arrayed vertically, like harp strings.) He owed his longevity, he told The New Haven Register last year, to cheap Scotch and strong tobacco.
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Obituary from 2013: Manson Whitlock, Typewriter Repairman, Dies at 96 (Original Post)
mahatmakanejeeves
May 2017
OP
Docreed2003
(16,858 posts)1. Brilliant...a fitting obituary...
Sadly these artisans are passing more frequently by the day....I still love a typewriter!!
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,425 posts)2. Me too. I just don't want to have to use one. NT
Docreed2003
(16,858 posts)4. I have an old "Royal" in my office...
I usually use it for journal writing. My wife teases every time that I get on it by saying "You writing the great American novel yet?"
lapfog_1
(29,199 posts)3. My 17 year old niece
absolutely loves old typewriters... no electrics... just old mechanical ones. She has a laptop... but for her journal and notes... typewriters.
mulsh
(2,959 posts)5. RIP Mr. Whitlock. I still use my 1942 Underwood portable typewriter. I wish computer keyboards had
a bell ring at certain points.