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  NOSTALGIA

The only typewriter shop in town has its hands full

  By Daniel Gewertz Globe correspondent,Updated February 15, 2021, 2:25
  p.m.
  (BUTTON)
  (BUTTON)
  Tom Furrier, owner of Cambridge Typewriter in Arlington, says business
  his has been booming as people discover (or rediscover) the pleasure of
  writing letters, poetry, and stories on a typewriter. Tom Furrier,
  owner of Cambridge Typewriter in Arlington, says business his has been
  booming as people discover (or rediscover) the pleasure of writing
  letters, poetry, and stories on a typewriter.David L. Ryan/Globe Staff

  Last April, in front of a small storefront in Arlington, it became a
  common sight to see young people sitting on a bench, portable
  typewriters upon their knees. The old 20th-century sound of a
  typewriter’s clackety-clack filled the spring air. [97]Cambridge
  Typewriter was experiencing a fortunate consequence of the COVID era: a
  sales boom.

  “I was selling on the sidewalk,” said Tom Furrier, longtime owner of
  the Boston area’s only typewriter store and repair shop. “Customers
  stood in the open doorway, pointed to a model, and I brought it out.
  Then I wiped it off and brought out their next choice. I was going
  through a lot of disinfectant and selling a lot of machines. I was busy
  beforehand, but COVID raised my business by 40 percent.”

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  Tom Furrier repairs a typewriter. Tom Furrier repairs a
  typewriter.David L. Ryan/Globe Staff

  Many of the new customers were in their teens and 20s. “Some literally
  skip out of the store, they’re so giddy,” Furrier said.

  Why typewriters? Indoor solitary crafts and hobbies have all been
  boosted by the pandemic’s strictures. But, just like the little revival
  typewriters enjoyed back in the aughts — initially a West Coast hipster
  enthusiasm — the current increase points to an affection for the
  mechanical amid a digital age. The “typer” has hardly replaced the
  ubiquitous laptop. How could it? With only a few insignificant
  exceptions, the machines have not been mass-produced for several
  decades. But a transformation was taking place: the device once
  considered the essential business machine was reborn as a creative tool
  far removed from the drudgery of work. The typewriter has acquired a
  touch of magic.

  “My customers use it for journaling, poetry, creative writing,” Furrier
  said. “It’s all about writing without Internet distractions, about
  getting into a zone. It’s a Zen thing.”

  The typewriter appeal combines the newfangled and the nostalgic. “It
  resonates immediately: the touch, the feel, the sound,” he said.

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  The young’s pronounced love of the typewriter’s clackety-clack can seem
  naive to older typists who take the mechanical sound for granted. But
  according to Daniel Marleau, who operates the website
  [98]TypewriterReview.com, sound is essential.

  “The sound begins to feel like music,” he wrote in an e-mail. “When you
  stop writing, even for a moment, you’ll feel compelled to continue,
  because there’s no reward in silence.”

  Marleau also believes the fingers-brain connection on a typewriter
  inspires the imagination. “It’s a creativity survival response. Your
  brain senses you’re on a high wire without the safety net of editing,”
  he explained.
  Some of the inventory at Cambridge Typewriter. Some of the inventory at
  Cambridge Typewriter.David L. Ryan/Globe Staff

  Tom Furrier’s involvement with Cambridge Typewriter dates back 41
  years, nearly his entire working life. For his first 10 years — when
  the store was in Cambridge — Furrier was an employee. He bought the
  shop in 1990 and moved it to 102 Massachusetts Ave. in Arlington. But
  by 2000, the store was perilously close to closing. “It was dicey,”
  Furrier admitted. “Fixing electric typewriters was all I knew, and they
  were getting totally obsolete. I was sitting around with nothing to
  do.”

  Furrier believes in trusting his instincts, and days away from giving
  his landlord notice, he was struck by one. “A voice told me something
  good was going to happen. For a year, I waited. And then, slowly, young
  people started to come in, asking for manual typewriters.”

  Furrier had a problem though: He’d never worked on a manual,
  non-electric machine. “So, at night, for maybe two years, I took
  manuals apart and put them back together,” he said. “It became a
  passion. I’m still learning new things.”

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  “It’s such a thrill to see the typewriter come back,” says Tom Furrier,
  whose connection to Cambridge Typewriter goes back 41 years. “It’s such
  a thrill to see the typewriter come back,” says Tom Furrier, whose
  connection to Cambridge Typewriter goes back 41 years.David L.
  Ryan/Globe Staff

  When customers are in the shop, “my favorite part is seeing people have
  that light-bulb moment when their fingers first hit the keys. The big
  smile. The joy,” he said. “They instantly get the typewriter bug.”

  Some are as young as 7. “That’s usually old enough to have the finger
  strength and dexterity to master the keyboard, and young enough to love
  learning by repetition,” he said. “Some of them become obsessed. I love
  seeing a child’s excitement.”

  Like the typewriter itself, Furrier does one job and does it well.
  “It’s such a thrill to see the typewriter come back,” he said. “Now I
  can see myself doing this until I retire, which is what I’ve always
  wanted.”

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