From When I Used to Be a Not Half-Bad Writer
A photo from our 2009 vacation to Southern California
I was perusing my old Flickr photos when I came across this typecast, made with my older Royal Mercury, while sitting on the beach in Oceanside, California. I was struck by my writing - I don't think I can write like this today, at least not without some effort. Being on vacation at the time, this did not require much effort. Not that this is world-shatteringly great prose, but there's something caught within these typewritten lines that speaks to the moment of what it was like in 2009 during our vacation.
Here's the machine I used, a 1972 Royal Mercury:
Photo taken at Stag Tobacconist when I used to frequently type in their cigar lounge
This machine is still in ABQ, now being cared for by a member of our fledgling ABQwerty Type Writer Society; I just received a letter from her this week, typed on this machine, and it looks like it's still going strong, though it needs a new ribbon, which I've promised to install.
Back to the typecast, I don't know what's happened, but writing like that doesn't come easily to me these days. Maybe it's because I'm involved now in much non-writing creativity, or maybe I simply don't write enough, like I once did, other than personal letters. Or maybe, back then, I was relatively new to this kind of writing and I didn't know any better, my mind wasn't clogged with conventions and presumptions and expectations or any other "ions." Maybe I should just sit down at the keys, and bleed.