DDD, when I took typing in high school we learned on big ol' clunky manual typewriters with BLANK keys! There was a chart on the wall that we were supposed to look at instead of looking down at our hands. Our teacher was this very prim and proper lady who would come around the room to make sure our fingers were arched properly, nails cut short, and both feet planted flat on the floor. I despised that woman! And yes, we used carbon paper and onion skin and those white typewriter erasers with the little brush on them, the ones that would make a hole in the paper if you weren't careful - and sometimes even if you were careful! And we had to learn to cut stencils to use in the mimeograph machine. I remember the smell of the mimeograph ink very well. We all loved it! Sometimes they'd pass out stacks of papers that were still warm, right out of the mimeograph machine. And we'd all put the sheets up to our faces and inhale deeply!
I remember when I first started working for a big city newspaper in 1966, before copiers were in general use. There were about twenty people in my section. Now if you have a memo or notice to go to everyone, you just make a copy for each person. Back then we had one memo and passed it around. Everyone initialed it after they had seen it and then passed it on. And now, if you have to make copies of a packet of papers, you just hit the "Collate" button on the copier. Back then we arranged the sheets in stacks on a big table, then you'd walk around and around the table, taking one sheet from each stack to make your set. We've come a looooong way!
