Planes, Trains, Automobiles (And Car Ferries too)
A Record Number of Portable Typewriter are on the Road This Week. Take Survey at the End of this Post!
It’s heart-warming to think about all the portable typewriters out on the road this week. Writers taking their favorite machines with them wherever they’re celebrating Thanksgiving. The social-media strategist who just wants to get away from her laptop so she brings her Skywriter with her as she makes way across the nation to California. The guy who packs cans of New Glarus pale ale in his checked-in luggage, but brings his Olivetti Lettera 42 to type on during a lay-over for a trip that ends in Denver. Or the young budding novelist, types on his Hermes Rocket while watching the planes take off and land at the Atlanta airport.
All the above examples are made-up, but they could be real. Portable typewriters out and about in the airport are not usual anymore. The last time I brought a typewriter and pulled it out on the table intended for recharging phones and laptops at the airport, I just got an extra-long glance from the lady tapping away on her MacBook Air.
There’s something about travel that makes me want to take the extra effort to bring a typewriter. Sure, it’s easier to bring the laptop. Sure, it’s less of a hassle to put through the laptop through it’s conveyor-belt paces during your security check before you head to the gate. (Why you might have to step out of line and open your carrying case for a Homeland Security attendant). Sure, you’re going to have find a place for your machine on board the plane, you might even have to put in the overhead bin).
But it’s definitely worth it the moment you have a chance to write. Room is often too tight in an airplane seat for tapping on a typewriter, but you just might be able to break out the machine on a train, inside the back seat of a car or inside the cabin of a car ferry.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re writing a letter, typing out random thoughts about the passing scenery or working a scene for NANOWRIMO, it’s just the fact that you’re being creative that’s far braver than any of the knitters and crocheters who take out their needles and hooks to work on their latest sock, hat or scarf. You are far, far, far more bold because your creative work makes noise. It invites attention. Typing in a public place is a risk. Someone might ask you to stop. It might be a fellow passenger or a flight attendant. Not everyone can be that brave, even some typewriter aficionados wait until they’re off the plane or train. They don’t want to offend, they don’t want to be that person that disturbs a passenger’s sleep or movie-in-progress.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Typewriter collector BenJoe Markland asked fellow passengers before he pulled out his Lettera 22 onboard a Delta flight. He even kept the Lettera inside its carrying case, letting the soft lid hit the screen monitor on the seat in front of him. He said fellow passengers were cool with it and even had a laugh about it.
Obviously, you want a portable typewriter and a carriage return that won’t swing in the path of the passenger seated next to you. I’ll bet Markland had more fun typing than watching the latest mindless, dumb movie; a basketball or football game or even reading a book (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Markland’s heading to the Philippines and El Salvador in the next few weeks. The little Lettera’s coming along!
Fellow typewriter collector Tham Pui Sam said he has always wanted to write on a typewriter while on an airplane, but he always pushed back. He decided to take a chance and brought his folding Corona 3 on board a budget flight to Thailand. He feared the front passenger would be disturbed by the machine’s vibration. He started typing a journal entry. Sure enough, the passenger in front said not a word and moved to adjacent empty seat. Sam stopped typing immediately.
Still Sam says you should try this once-in-a-life time opportunity in a premium seat or when you have empty seats around you (probably in front too because of the possible vibration issue.)
I say give typing on board a go. Stop if requested. Move if you can to another seat. In a train, try typing in the dining or cafe car. On a boat, there’s usually plenty of room with tables.
Whatever you do, type somewhere, even if you’re standing up at a narrow table with the stupid human robots charging up their phones or tapping out numbers on an Excel spreadsheet, Salesforce document.
You. yeah, you! You’re doing something important. Writing a letter to a friend who wrote you a letter or writing a novel to share your worldview. Recording what’s happening in the world around you, conversations, people you see, the building you’re in, the scenery outside.
People who type and write on their machines say they feel alive tapping away on their machines. You are sharing just how alive you feel by bravely typing on a machine in a vehicle full of other humans. You’re saying, “I feel alive typing on this machine! I hope you feel alive hearing me type. I hope you type one day on a machine. I dare you to type on a machine like mine while waiting at the gate for your plane. I double-dare you to write on a typewriter while you’re miles high in the sky.”
So when you see your fellow typewriter collectors on the road this week, say hi, thank them for traveling with their machines, express gratitude for the example they set by typing in public and on an airplane of all places.
Take the survey if you’re so inclined!
