The other night, my dh and I were reflecting on how his nephew would be starting university. We contemplated how he would fare considering he was taking an old laptop to university which likely would be sufficient for word processing but not for research.
As we furthered the discussion, we recalled how we dealt with university essays:
My dh hired a typist to type his papers (and, as a child, I vividly recall my mother going into the basement to type up papers for a fee as a way of earning money; I can still hear the tapping of the electric typewriter!).
I recall borrowing a fellow dorm-mate's typewriter and having to pay for typing (ink) ribbon (which seemed expensive!). In my 3rd year, I purchased a higher-tech typewriter/printer (~ a Canon Typestar, I believe) which permitted me to correct one line at a time before printing the line. What luxury! I still had to proof-read and correct my paper by cutting and pasting and photocopying the corrected page! My roommate had a superior Canon Typestar which was capable of holding enough words to fill one full page before printing!
It wasn't until 1990 when I was really forced to encounter a computer for the first time during summer student employment. I recall entering into a federal Ministry and being shown a laptop. When I indicated that I didn't know how to use WordPerfect, I was told that I would be learning that task that summer! Computer research was just starting to be taught at law school! We did most legal research
manually. (In fact, just this week I was trying to locate the
Statute of Elizabeth (circa 1571!) and will have to get a hard-copy from the library!)
I was typing a response, but it was as long as a post, so I will post it on my page. :-) See you over there.
ReplyDeleteOh, I remember manual research via libraries and more manual typing on a word processor... seem sooo long ago now... LOL! Happy Day, MJ ((HUGS))
ReplyDeleteMakes me feel ancient! Messy white out and typewriters were all we had. I do remember bringing in my OWN word processor at one of my TV jobs because they did not spend the money to buy each of the (promotion and marketing) producers a desktop computer. This was not that long ago, like lets say, 1999. Maybe my bringing in the word processor was a hint because the next year we each had our own!
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of a conversation Neil and I had with the kids over dinner just a few weeks ago. We were entertaining ourselves by telling the girls about typewriters (in particular, the kind in which the paper moves as you type each letter!) and how different they were from computer typing. It was prompted by my asking my mom if she still had her old typewriter from the 60s and then her delivering it to our house. I wanted it for scrapbooking. Unfortunately, I haven't opened it yet to see if the ribbon is still okay!
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