NOt sure what I'm doing, but call me Erika Man, because it was through an Erika (early 70s model) that I got back into typing. It happened while I was in Mexico. There are some places, beginning with Mexico City which still have public, professional typists. They are still called "scribes" because they are heirs to the scribes of old who used to write all kinds of things for people who either could not or didn't want to write. They are in the downtown areas and type anything you want. So I saw them and remembered them from when I was young and fell in love with the Olivettis that most of them were using. I told my students about it ( I was teaching a study abroad summer program in Mexico at the time) and thought that was that. But when we got back to the US one of my student's grandfather had passed away and left her a typewriter which she didn't want or know what to do with, so she came to me and asked me if I wanted it. It turned out to be the Erika. A Cold Warrior from the old Democratic Republic of Germany. And that's how I started to get back into typing.
 I love typing again, it is so refreshing to get away from all the digital/unreal world where nothing seems permanent or real. Typewriters are so solid, concrete and physical. They are my "safe zones" in a world where everything is ephemeral and transitory. Not the Machine, it's permanent, a definite rock....hmm, I think I'll put that in typing.
Sincerely,
Erika Man

Yes welcome.  And a reminder that the TW is still in practical daily use in many places around the globe.
Should 'anything happen' to the digital world (such as someone switching it off!) I expect that all our machines would be commandeered by our respective governments - or perhaps they have stocks of machines, just in case.  I wonder if lists of machines are being compiled by some clerk somewhere, reading TT and noting who's got what - quite a thought.

Never used an Erika - but have pen-pals who own them, and they seem generally liked by their users.

beak wrote:

...a reminder that the TW is still in practical daily use in many places around the globe.
Should 'anything happen' to the digital world (such as someone switching it off!) I expect that all our machines would be commandeered by our respective governments...

Off-topic for this thread, but I watched an older film last night called Mercury Rising that had a computer programmer buying a Smith-Corona Classic 12 so he could create non-digital text that was hack proof. He even used carbon paper to make copies, which oddly enough turned out to be what saved his message from being fully destroyed. 

Last I knew, the NYC police dept was still using typewriters for a couple of their forms... & hi, ErikaMan! 

Hi Mad Typer.  Welcome to TT.  Nice collection.  There is also a place on the typewriter database where you can upload pictures and data about your machines.  I still haven't done it myself, but I'm going to start soon.