Lost and found - some childhood memories
Saturday, October 12, 2019 at 10:30 
A few weeks ago I mentioned that my mother is about to move house.
My parents moved to Derbyshire 40 years ago, when I was at university. I moved to London soon after graduating so I have never really lived there.
Inevitably, most of my childhood possessions have 'disappeared' since I grew up in Scotland. Occasionally however something is discovered in the attic or the back of a cupboard.
This week we found the typewriter I used as a teenager. The Remington portable dates back to 1920. I’m not sure how old this particular model is but it’s definitely pre-war. Online I’ve seen it described as 'vintage' and in good condition it seems to be selling for up to £250.
It was handed down to me by my grandfather and I used it a lot between the ages of 12 and 16. I even typed my Sixth Form dissertation on it. I remember the keys would get stuck if I typed too quickly, but overall it worked quite well.
Today it seems incredible that we would continue to use something that was decades old (think how quickly we replace iPhones and laptops) but at the time I was grateful to have any sort of typewriter.
I was at university before I got my hands on a ‘modern’ electric typewriter. Although it had been around for years, the IBM 'golf ball' typewriter we used to produce our student newspaper looked and felt like a huge step forward but within a few years even that had been relegated to history by the personal computer.
Something else my mother and I stumbled upon was my father’s old reel-to-reel Grundig tape recorder which dates back to the late Fifties.
As far as I can remember my father used it to record three things: bird song, family breakfasts (when my sister and I were very young), and Pick of the Pops with Alan Freeman.
Only a few tapes have survived. One or two I recognise as mine because as my father’s interest in pop music waned I took on the role of recording songs off the radio on a Sunday evening.
The Grundig was eventually 'retired' in the early Seventies when I was given a Philips cassette recorder for Christmas. At that point I graduated to cassette tapes, including pre-recorded tapes.
Last, and definitely least, we also discovered my old Meccano set. I'll keep the typewriter and the reel-to-reel tape recorder, but the Meccano set? Nah.
Update: I switched on the Grundig last night and it works, just! It struggles to fast forward (or go back) at any speed but it plays at the right speed so there is no distortion in sound. Considering it hasn’t been used for almost 50 years that’s pretty amazing.
The main problem is the volume. Even at the highest setting it’s very quiet. (Not muffled, just quiet.) I don’t know whether it’s an issue with the machine or the tapes (which seem in pretty good condition) but it still looks great!
Above: The Remington typewriter, Grundig tape recorder and Meccano set, plus a photo of me circa 1975.
Reader Comments (3)
I miss the typewriter and the beautiful music it played as you tappity tapped the keys. I still prefer to use one. Computers, lap top and phone keyboards are just not the same. I really feel for the deprivation today's modern generation suffers in comparison. They have no idea how good it was.
You're right, Pat. There was something magical about tapping on a typewriter and seeing the words appear, all nice and neat and in straight lines, on paper before your very eyes. Except, of course, for those moments when your finger "missed" the key and slipped between two and, if you were a fast typist, you'd wrenched your finger out before you realised, scraping half the skin off! Ouch! That's certainly up there, along with stubbing your toe, in the category of "things that shouldn't hurt that much, but damned well do!"
Not me. I am a two finger typist and have never came to harm from playing music with words on a typewriter. I cannot type fast enough.