Read All About It!

So it was just a few days ago, that Stacy and I set out into the city to find a skilled technician to tend to a certain typewriter that has come into our care.

A typewriter. An old typewriter. An old Underwood.We have a special feeling already for this typewriter, with its frozen keys, its bell that one day will ring, its gears and levers and rollers.

Thanks to Google it took only 2 minutes to locate a skilled typewriter repairman. We set out to meet this gentlemen and looked forward to learning more about our typewriter and inquiring about what it would take to get it cleaned up. Entering the shop was like stepping back in time. So many typewriters strewn about on the floor, shelves, in the windows, all over just lying about helter skelter. He took one look and whistled, “Oooh that’s an old one!”

After giving it a once over he informed us that for a reasonable sum of money and timeframe of 6 – 12 months, he could have it back to us, cleaned, restored and in working order. We were thrilled. He kept asking us, “Are you sure?! You want to spend money to fix this!? It will take almost 12 months to complete!” He probably doesn’t find too many young women such as ourselves just giddy over restoring an old typewriter.

He was even able to help us solve two mysteries!

1) How old is it? – With quite a few goings over with a rag and paint solvent, he magically rubbed away old hardened paint to reveal the patent numbers. “1908!” he cried as the numbers came bursting up to the surface.

2) We were concerned that it was missing the number 1…we just could not figure it out as it didn’t even seem to have a space for this key that was obviously missing. We were promptly corrected! “That is because they were never made with a number one! You just used the lowercase L for that!” And here we just thought the number one hadn’t been created by 1908. So much for that idea!

We left this typewriter in his care, with only a little handwritten note, stating the cost, its make and model, and to please pick up in 6 – 12 months. I think this Underwood typewriter will be our first official piece of decor that we have acquired for the new store. We are already busy and frantic scheming up uses and excitement for this amazing machine.

	“This small volume has been written to fill the need of skiers and mountaineers for a ready ‘in the field’ reference on avalanche conditions and rescue operations. To become a practical avalanche expert requires time, study, and experience — more of each than most of us can spare. Each year there are avalanche accidents, many avoidable, and many fatal only because the survivors became confused and did not follow the proper rescue procedures. This book in the pocket of a rucksack will help to supply the right information at the right time.”
	Gentle reader, the owner of this book took the cautionary introduction seriously. Behold the diligence with which each and every line is underlined, some more than once. See the care with which important topic headers — which is to say almost all topic headers — are encircled. Consider the time, the effort, the study expended in his quest towards readiness ‘in the field…’
	..and then pause, gripped by a nameless dread, and gaze upon the pristine pages at book’s end. This book came to us in a book sale box, far from the pocket of the rucksack where it might have done its highest and best good.A saddening story, friends.The ABC of Avalanche Safety indeed.

Found in a box from the Downers Grove book sale

“EARLY in the 1940′s I moved into new living quarters where I found myself besieged by roaches. I consulted a druggist. He sold me a carton of vivid blue powder, the label on which contained the following legend:

POISON POISON
SODIUM FLUORIDEMERCK…

Promptly I found other means of dealing with roaches.”

Found in a box from the Lemont Library book sale

And, after a few misstarts and recodes, we’re off!

Highlights of November thus far:

- The Lemont library book sale, which added 2,000 more titles to our growing collection

- The Algonquin library book sale, which gave us another 1,000 or so

- Filling our third storage unit and renting a fourth one

- Getting a closing date (Nov 30) for our new home (!)

- Launching v. 1.0 of the site