Tippity Tap

I mentioned that I recently returned from a family visit in North Dakota, Montana and Alberta. I went to see my big Sissy in North Dakota first and got to visit a bunch of places where I spent about 10 years of my life while I was growing up.

We went to an indoor antique mall which used to be called Hedrich's back in the day. It was a department store back then and even in the 60's it was kind of ancient. Or at least I thought it was. It had one of those old things where the clerk put the money in this tube, screwed it to another half of a tube which was dangling from a cord and then the clerk would yank on a handle and away went the money in the tube thingy, whizzing up the cable to the "office" upstairs on the mezzanine and in a minute or two, here came your change back down. I was fascinated by that thing.

So anyway, we poked around inside there and I visited one area where I could actually remember trying on clothes in the Junior section, and even some of the articles of clothing I bought. I remember in particular a green "poor boy" sweater and hip hugger pants with a nice wide belt, circa 1967. These were hot back then.

I digress. Anyway, down in the basement were about a zillion old books, but in one corner area there were a bunch of old typewriters and adding machines and other contraptions. I found this Underwood typewriter and it had a price tag of $50 on it. I really hate to try to bargain with people over prices because I know they have overhead at these malls. But I decided to ask, anyway, as I really didn't want to spend more than $35. The woman running the mall that day just happened to be the owner of this typewriter and she said she needed at least $40 so I took her up on it. When I paid her the money and I was going out the door she said, "Good luck finding a ribbon for it." I thought, "Rats, I was hoping to maybe type with it but I guess I'll just have to dismantle it for the keys." But when I got it back to my sister's house, guess what? It had a ribbon in it, and not only that it was inked, I could type with it. So I'm not sure what the send-off about the ribbon was about. Maybe she was just confused about which one I was buying, I don't know.

I got back home and last week I went to a few yard sales and the first one I went to they had this nice Royal typewriter. I asked, "How much?", and the lady said, "Well, I don't want to give it away so I need $20 for it." Nema problema. I forked over the $20 and didn't blink. It types, too, by the way. Only thing is, it weighs a TON! This one I think I will dismantle for the keys. More on that later if I make something out of them.