ozTypewriter turned 10 today. To celebrate, my wife took me on a three-hour tour of Canberra's op-shops, antique stores and recycling barns. It was a unique opportunity for me, one not to miss - here was Harriet not only egging me on to buy a typewriter (for once), but offering to pay for it too! In the end we got two, one of which (an electric portable) I bought for $15. Both are in great working condition. And they're both pretty much all black (or at least dark gray), reflecting my other great passion - for the New Zealand national rugby union team. These two have been added, as acquisitions in the past week, to a Valentine I picked up on Friday; the collection slowly grows, once more ... Anyway, here we are after 10 years of blogging - 2632 posts and 4.465 million page views. Looking back, I think Ted Munk's June 2, 2018, post "On the 'Death' of the Typosphere, a Few Thoughts and Ideas" pretty much sums up my feelings about the past decade. Few things have changed since Ted typecast his reflections, except that perhaps Instagram may have caught and even passed Facebook for the online sharing of typewriter passion. I can't say for sure, because I stay well clear of Facebook typewriter groups, but I do quite like the instant and obviously genuine feedback on Instagram, as transient as it is. As I said three weeks ago, about the efforts of Jonathan Posey, David Brechbiel and Bill Guthtrie in reaching back into the past of the typewriter collecting phenomena, and in doing so bringing the Typosphere even closer together, there is still great joy to be had in being a part of this community. I certainly intend to keep going as a blogger, at least for another year or two. By the time I'm 75, I'll probably want to bow out and leave the daily grind of typewriter research and writing to a younger, brighter, more eager brigade. Then again, maybe not ... ![]()
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Is it this "kid's" last bout? I hope not.
