Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Day 26 of The Photo Challenge - Close Up

Where it happens!  The keys of my keyboard.
Computers are a wonder. They are such a part of our lives, I'm sure we take them for granted.  I worked once in a factory where computers took up the whole room and we fed them punch cards like they were animals at a zoo.
Long before personal computers, I sat at one time, in a room full of girls and one or two boys, in front of large humming machines, called  electric typewriters. Mrs. Johnson would quote off things for us to type or we would sit with books propped up in front of us, copying meticulously, the words on the page. We were quiet and the only sound would be her voice or the rhythmic ticking of fingers on keys.   I never did well in that class. While others were obeying the rules, I was off in my own world doing this.

Typing

qwertyuiop[
asdfghjkl;'
zxcvbnm,../
and on and on forever,
letters and more letters,
26 in all and filling up paper,
click...click..click.
thump...thump...thump
tick...tick...tick
until my fingers ache
and I've typed out documents
and written letters
and learned to spell
and written a Civil Service exam
and became a secretary
for Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones and Bill Otto.
in my opinion it's a hassle
and I'd sooner write and put my poems on paper.

Ha. The musings of a 14 year old girl. I still have that paper tucked in a folder with all my other old poems. I wrote hundreds in typing class. I never became a secretary. Heck, I only got 65% in typing anyhow. I am however, glad I learned. This blog would be a whole lot harder if I hadn't! We have certainly come far!

4 comments:

  1. Neat picture! I remember those large computer days! ha. Everything shrinks these day! (Including candy bars and ice cream!)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love this blast from your past, mom :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Even if you were not doing the assignment, you were still learning where the keys were. Thanks for sharing your musings. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. GREAT photo Anita!!! And cute little ditty from your younger days!! I remember hating typing class too - never thought I would get the hang of it! ;)

    ReplyDelete