The Very First Post on My New Blog!

Hi. I’m so glad you stopped by. If you are reading this, you are seeing history being made. You see, I was born before… well… before my grandchildren. That was a long time ago. I learned to type on a manual typewriter. For those of you who don’t know what that is, here is a picture:


This may not look like much, but back in it’s day, it was prized. It did have a few drawbacks. If you made a typo, you could use the typewriter eraser, which at worst left a hole in the paper or at best a smudge, or you could re-type the whole thing and hope you didn’t make another mistake.

Later someone invented a little strip of white paper that you could put between the type and your paper, then type over it with the same mistake you made originally. Hopefully this would cover your mistake, then you just typed the correct letter(s) over it. Sometimes when you typed over it, though, the force of the type knocked the white off and left the manuscript messy. If you wanted a copy of your work, you could put carbon paper between two sheets of paper. When you typed the original, it made a copy at the same time.

The typewriter in general was pretty easy to operate. You did have to pound hard on the keys, but you could get used to that. I suppose it built up the muscles in your fingers.

Maybe that is the real reason we got big knuckles rather than  from popping them.

I’m not sure about that, but I memorized a lot of Bible Verses by pounding them out over and over again on my old manual typewriter. The first thing I memorized, however, was the classic sentence that was used to teach correct finger position on the typewriter:


(I’ve typed that one more times than I can count.)

The electric typewriter came along and made typing both faster and easier, although you had to go through the same process to correct your mistakes as with the old manual style.

The word processor came out soon after. It allowed you to preview your typing and correct mistakes before the words hit the paper. It saved a lot of time and headache, but I preferred my electric typewriter.

My first computer was an Apple IIc. It took a while, but I finally learned to use it for typing documents and making spreadsheets. Graphics were stored on huge 5 1/4″ square disks. The paper for the printer was fed continuously as you typed. It was perforated every eleven inches so when you finished the document you could tear the pages apart at the perforation. It was fun to use after I got the hang of it.

The computer I got in the mid 90’s was the dinosaur of the models we use today. I could turn it on, but that was about it. For some reason I thought I would be able to use it to make money. I don’t know where I got that notion–it just seemed like there should be a way.

Then I heard about eBay, and determined to give it a try. I bought a $400 digital camera. It took a month or so to figure out how to list an item, but I was finally successful. In fact, I was successful to the tune of $300 for my first sell! This was enough to motivate me to keep trying for the six months it took me to get the next item listed.

It seems that each time I think I have something figured out, something else comes along to stump me. Technology seems to be moving faster and faster, threatening to leave me behind.

I refuse to give up. I keep plugging until I figure it out. I don’t want to be left behind. I have learned more things than I ever thought possible.

As I write this, I am in the process of building my own website. It’s not easy. I’ve made a lot of mistakes and am sure I will make many more.

When I succeed, and I will, I will have proved that even an old woman can make history happen. I am determined to be that old woman!