Living in the 70's

1970’s Typewriters

Were the 70's the worst decade? Remember the era of avocado bathrooms, lava lamps, woodchip wallpaper, flared pants and shagpile rugs? Bring back memories.?

It was also the decade I learnt how to touch type on a manual typewriter at school, and went from there to 'Secretarial College' to increase my skills, typing speed and use an electric typewriter. I entered the workforce in 1978, with my first job in a 'Typing Pool', typing up insurance policies, reports (from a dictaphone) and letters - carbon paper, pencil erasers, daisy wheels, and the IBM Selectric balls for different fonts and characters. Mistakes weren't easy to correct!

My underpinning skills and work ethic came from this decade, and it was the last major decade of the manual typewriter. The IBM electric typewriter and the introduction of the home computer was the beginning of the end for the classic manual typewriter.