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A Rainy Day Before Closing Time
June 04, 2023
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Pulled into the thrift shop about ten minutes before closing time.
The mission was to grab a micro cassette recorder that had been
reported there a few days ago. This proved folley as it has sold the
day before.
But!
Found a dirty Royal Quiete De Luxe manual typewriter in with the
component stereo equipment. Some quick tapping showed it to have
promise. Into my arms it went. The proprietor then told me of
another machine in the office supply room. This proved to be a JC
Penney branded Concord 12 manufactured by Smith Corona. Being both
wide-carriage (able to feed sheets up to 11" wide like, say 11x17
paper) and an early typebar electric in a hefty Samsonite case, it
was also purchased.
A printing calculator of the same model as my go-to unit to have a
cheap back-up and original A/C plug rounded out the bill. Well, that
and a couple dirt cheap, blank CD-Rs.
Then the fun of lashing that all to a motorcycle in the rain as
staff looked on in horror.
The JC Penny electric works a treat and needs no work. Even the
ribbon is in perfect typing condition. The Royal will need a good
cleaning, adjustment to the bell mechanism to be proper looud and
always ding, fresh ribbon, and a slight lowering of the writing line
scale.
While the JCPenny is a certain keeper for wide-paper projects, the
Royal will likely be a back-up machine to my beloved daily driver SCM
Sterling. Used enough to stay loose but really a loaner.
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kimek
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gopher://sdf.org/1/users/kimek]
