Wholly Writ: Wanda

We all like to collect the tools of our trade.  Baristi have their home-roasters and coffee siphons, sommeliers their heirloom, crystal decanters.  Seminary students have their leather-bound, gilt-edged complete works of  Owen.  And I have Wanda: my sleek, chic, blue and chrome, vintage… paperweight.

Wanda was not always a paperweight; she was once a typewriter, a good one, a Consul to be precise.  The guy who sold her to me said she was circa 1960, but he’s also the guy who said she was in good working order, and just see how that turned out. Searching for clues to Wanda’s past, I found a tiny sticker on the back that reads, “Made in Czechoslovakia.”  So all I really know for sure is that she was manufactured before 1^st January, 1993.

Though she no longer performs her primary function, Wanda is far from useless.  Besides exerting gravity on stacks of paper, she’s also incredibly photogenic (see above).  And from that side of the photo, you’d never know her carriage is immobile and her space bar doesn’t depress.  Between photo ops, Wanda sits on a bookshelf beside my other two: a 1958 Underwood Golden-Touch (eraser dust gumming up the works) and a 1960 Smith Corona Classic (out of ink).

I once cherished dreams of antique typewriter repair, taking in old castoffs to prevent them being poached for their keys (to make into jewelry and sell at crafts fairs).  I imagined restoring life to Faulkner’s, White’s and Wodehouse’s instruments of choice (Remington, Underwood, and Monarch, respectively).  Instead, I seem to be amassing a collection of beautiful, rather cumbersome bookends.

Très Geek: www.myTypewriter.com