A few days ago, I wrote:
“If you’re roughly my age, we may share some of these academic distinctions:
- last or close-to-last class of students to attend various Cold War or pre-war era schools before their 90s and 2000s-riffic renovations. (Elementary school, high school, college)
- last or close-to-last class to take a typing elective where actual typewriters were used. (9th grade, but I didn’t really learn to type until I started using AIM the next year.) Possibly the last class to even be offered a typing elective.
- last class to run DOS in a computer applications class. (10th grade)
- last class to run DOS-based email and instant messaging on campus servers. (college)”
What I didn’t mention was that before I learned to type (and before my family got our first home PC) we had a Brother word processor, a fantastic 80’s device that combined the functionality of a computer with none of the fun. Still, as a budding writer, I was mystified by the green and black interface and by the mechanical goodness of the printing process, which pounded out every word and punctuation mark with austere, efficient resolve. If you love the visceral feel of typewriter mechanics and, for whatever reason, the ability to edit typos before they actually print, brother, these things were for you.
I saw a featured post on the WordPress homepage today that took me back to the days of digital input and ribbon printing. Dr. J asks, and thankfully answers, the defining question of word processing’s transitional age: “Mr. Owl, how many spaces really DO go after the period?” One, he says. Just one.
Sir, I think I must respectfully disagree. See what I mean? Too close. Too close for comfort. My sentences need room to breathe, friend. Like this. And this. Maybe not this, though I was first taught to do three spaces. This just feels wrong. This is the good stuff.
Because I wanted to include a picture of a Brother word processor in this post, I found this excellent Craigslisting:
Brother Portable Daisy Wheel Word Processor – $35
Brother Word Processor WP- 2600 able to save document on discs, print, & see other worksheets, etc on the screen. Great for someone beginning to learn keyboard typing & doesn’t have access to computer. Prints & saves documents.
WP-2600Q
Whisper Print ultra quiet daisy wheel system
Standard 3.5″ 720KB disk drive for MS-DOS file compatibility with PC’s
Allows transfer to ASCII files
Allows conversion of spreadsheets to LOTUS 1-2-3 WK1 files
Double column printing
Icon main menu
Dual screen capability
Allows you to view two files simultaneously and exchange information between them
Easy to read 5″x9″ (15 lines by 91 character) CRT display with contrast adjustment
Special features
GrammarCheck I with “word-spell” 70,000 word dictionary and 204 programmable user words
Punctuation alert
Redundancy check
Word count
45,000 word thesaurus
Easy access pull down menus
On screen help function
Spreadsheet software
Framing
Uses Model 1030 correctable ribbon and Model 3010 correction tape
Bold and expanded print
Block copy/move/delete
Auto save
Automatic “Word-Out” and “Line-Out” correction system erases a single word or a complete line
Automatic relocation after correction
Direct and line-by-line typing to handle labels and envelopes
Full line lift-off correction memory
Disk copy allows you to copy text from one disk to another
$35 Cash
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I’m not too enthused about the ultra quiet daisy wheel print system, but this post does a great job of showing us all the features that made these things practical for people who didn’t want or need a personal computer back in the day. What a fantastic hybrid of nineteenth and twentieth century innovations, you are, Word Processor. Even if you have no place in the 21st century market place, you’ll always have one in my heart. Shine on, you crazy diamond!
In honor of you, and of the icy, wintry mix outside, I offer proof of how badly we needed you:
Chris Cocca 
My favorite.
“My hat flew over my eyes, that’s one thing I really despise”
“I cried oh know”
Look at that… you’ve been a writer all of your years!
=). The Word Processor would not have found that homophone issue, but my mom, while typing, would have =)
That snowy day is almost short enough for 6S?
I should send it to Rob! And I have you to thank, good sir, for sharing that picture on Facebook.
I’m OK with “Oh Know” i just think the line was split the wrong way.
“I cried.” / “Oh, know this is enough for me.”
see!?
you’re absolutely right. I’ve been selling myself short for nigh on 25 years.
Whoa is the fool who says this isn’t a fantastic post. Whoa is him. As I wrote that, I had to correct my automatic tendency to hit the space bar twice after the period. Then I remembered that I play guitar in a punk band. Screw the man, the establishment, and its agenda to socialize our sentence structure. I WANT MY SENTENCES PRIVATIZED AND SEPARATE! All we need to do now is get Rage Against the Machine to write a song on the importance of smackin’ some double bar after periods and we’re golden.
This has been my favorite WordPress post thus far on any blog, as it harkens back to when my mom had a computer made by some defunct company on a defunct operating system. I think it would make for an interesting companion piece to this post that I’m going to start writing up now. You are a beacon of inspiration, Master Cocca. I re-read that last sentence I typed, and am now hungry for bacon and cocoa. Excuse me.
Glad you liked it. Hit me with the link to that post you’re writing when you’re done. Bacon.
I too learned how to really type beacause of AIM. I think it was ’97. You know, whenever we got the dial-up in my house.
exactly. We got dial-up in ’97. But before that we used Juno for free email. All the glory of the modem sound but none of the actual internet. Sometimes I miss it. Actually, I miss anything having to do with the late ’90s.
I, too, used one 0f these devices. Awful. AUTOSAVE . . . AUTOSAVING . . . WAIT WHILE AUTOSAVE COMPLETES . . . every five minutes. There was no way to turn that feature off. Talk about an interrupted workflow.
I grew up ‘knowing’ that 2 spaces after a period improved my grade. I like your blog. I think you are a little younger since you didn’t mention key punch. Offered in post high school. In business school. Loved key punch, love word processing, and all of our current technology. Just saying “hello”.