A Writer's Hot Rod

The summer I turned 16 years old, there was only one thing I wanted for my birthday. Imagine the glistening metal body, the oiled wheels, the mechanical purr. Of course any teenager with a new permit would love a car, but I wasn’t a normal teenager. I was a dramatic, pseudo-starving high school poet/journalist who wanted nothing more than a workable typewriter for her first milestone birthday. Was that too much to ask?

Apparently so. For my parents, the typewriter’s obsolete nature was enough to deny me my one wish. What will you do if it breaks? Where will you get replacement parts? Do you have the money to take care of it? Will you even use it? They dangled these questions over my head until I waved that little white surrender flag.

I didn’t have the answers. Yes, I was skilled enough to build a K’Nex roller coaster without instructions, but I could never put a decades-old contraption back together. There was also the surprisingly high cost. Price-match a mini iPad, and you’ve got a pristine typewriter. They don’t come cheap, especially if you factor in the ribbon and part replacements.

As wise as I (thought I) was at 16, I never realized owning a typewriter was like owning a puppy. It takes work and money. The looming responsibility and parental drudgery proved to be a permanent roadblock for the rest of high school. Fast forward through my first year at Stanford University and there came a day special day in June when the universe (and my friends) decided to bless me.

For an early 20th birthday present, my best friend arranged for a bunch of my high school and college friends to chip in and buy me a 1940s Underwood typewriter. It even came from the very shop where Tom Hanks buys his typewriters (I still fangirl about this). Even though I waited four years for it, my typewriter has a better glistening metal body, better oiled wheels, and a better mechanical purr than I could’ve imagined. I officially feel like an English major/struggling writer.

Now about that car for my 21st birthday….