Now a lot of you will think I am a dinosaur, having graduated from high school in May of 1953! Yes, and you are probably correct. Sometimes I feel like the only thing that my 4 years of high school did was make me 4 years older.

But wait, there is one thing I learned that has stuck with me all these years have passed, some 67, and that is typing. I have retained the skill of being able to type using both hands without looking all these years and do appreciate the ability to do so on a QWERTY keyboard. I suppose you know why the keys on a typewriter keyboard are arranged as they were.

When they were first invented the typewriter, they discovered that typists could type faster than the keyboard could handle, so they began to experiment with key placement so the keys would not jam on a mechanical machine. So, frequently used letters were placed further apart to solve this problem. I suppose once you have learned to type on a QWERTY your fingers never forget their place on a keyboard.

By a strange twist of fate, I was in an IBM training class when they introduced the IBM Selectric Typewriter. It was revolutionary in that it eliminated the old system of individual key and in their place was a small ball with all the letters and numbers distributed around on the surface. It was much faster, easier to correct and would also be suitable to be connected to a computer for the output of data.

Oh, you don’t know what QWERTY is referring to? It is the first 6 letter keys reading from left to right on the upper left side of the keyboard under the number keys. Unfortunately, typewriters are no longer manufactured in the U.S. and I am not sure anywhere else in the world, thanks to the computer. Just Sayin…RJS

I took typing in 1958. GOOD place to meet girls! I learned to get along with a keyboard, but I never got good at it.

Robert, when you finished high school didn't they still refer to computers as "electronic brains"?

In 1980, I went to work as a technician for a company that manufactured a large computer for businesses. One big minicomputer that served 100 terminals and other peripherals. When that company first began manufacturing computers, the terminals were actually IBM Selectrics.

I remember when pocket calculators hit the market. About three months after I learned how to use a slide rule. @#//*!!