2008-10-27 13:51:07 - ZAMBOANGA CITY. Invented in the 1800's, typewriters were followed in the late 1970's by Word Processors. With the explosion of PC's and laptops in the past 15 years, the day of the typewriter is drawing to a close
Our fading love affair with typewriters

By Felino M. Santos

Time was when typewriters were common equipment in government offices, business and in homes. It is another story in these recent years.

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Rough estimates and random surveys conducted by the Philippines News agency in this city showed that at the most, the use of typewriters has dropped to only about 10 percent compared to computers. This was not so until some four decades ago.

Typewriters then were such useful equipment in the office and even in homes. Each of us has his or her own romance with typewriters. Here is mine.

I first poked my fingers on a typewriter keyboard when I was in Grade V in the hills of Basilan. My father borrowed a typewriter from a fellow classroom teacher

to type some reports. On my way to return the unit, I stopped along the roadside to poke some more on the keyboard before I handed over the typewriter to the owner.

Typewriters were rare in Basilan in the early 1950s and elementary and college days swiftly passed me by.

One day in 1964, I dropped by the Philippine National Bank to encash my first three months salary checks from the then Bureau of Public Schools. From the bank, I passed by an office equipment store and bought (by installment,) my first Singer Portable Typewriter. From that store I passed by another store and bought a copy of the book "Teach Yourself Typewriting". That portable typewriter and a home study course on journalism helped me get into the printed page.

In the middle 1960s, I was one of the some five contributors of the Philippine Free Press and Weekly Graphic (from Zamboanga), sending in five or seven- paragraph articles that could bring in a five of P10 money order from these prestigious publications. A P1 bill in those days was enough fare for a week, with jeepneys charging only P0.10 for a five kilometer ride.

After over a dozen years in the classrooms with its blackboards and pieces of chalk, I finally landed a job in the Department of Public Information (DPI) regional office in Zamboanga. There were typewriters on each of the dozen or so tables in that office. The Philippines News Agency (PNA) that opened its Bureau in Zamboanga in May 1979 was just a door away. There were typewriters and teleprinters at the PNA office.

By the way, a teleprinter or teletype machine is nothing but an electronic typewriter linked to each other by radio waves. Thus when one types a story in one teleprinter, the story is printed by the receiving unit in a split second thousands of kilometers away.

Because of continuous and never ending newsfeeds in the news agency, the teleprinter clacks nearly 24 hours a day.

ONSLAUGHT OF COMPUTERS. By and large, typewriters had their heydays until the onset of computers in the 1990s. The PNA introduced computers in Zamboanga in 1994 and the teleprinters were finally retired by overuse. These units of World War II vintage were technologically overtaken by better communication and word processing equipment.

There are still a few office that rely on typewriters. Police stations, security agency offices and a few other offices -- still keep typewriters.

Adamson Ceniza of the Western Mindanao State University (WMSU) says that typewriters make up only about 10 percent or less of equipment in the university. He said typewriters are still being used because of the documentary requirement for carbon copies. "Otherwise, we use computers for word processing and other typing jobs."

Thetis Bayona who is operations manager of a franchised food chain in Zamboanga has eight computers in her office. There is a 24-inch carriage Olympia typewriter in one corner of the office. "I use the typewriter to fill up blank forms like those for the Social Security System, the Bureau of Internal Revenue and other official forms. Otherwise, we use computers for the accounting, record keeping and communication needs of the office."

At a military camp in this city, Philippine Air Force Capt. Gregorio Bugarin said that the ratio of typewriters to computers is also about 1:10. Some military outposts are not equipped with computers and typewriters are used for reports and the keeping of files. Military detachments in the hills cannot lug computers along so the handy portable or desk typewriter is still a necessity.

DYING TYPEWRITER REPAIR SERVICE. A typewriter repairman for the last 54 years, Jesus Alcoran, admits that there is a big drop in typewriter repair jobs nowadays.

While he used to repair at least two or three typewriters in a day, "these days, I will be lucky if I can repair a unit in one week."

Typewriter repair shops have also gone out of business in Zamboanga. Except for one or two store-cum-repair stores in suburban barangays, shops in the city proper have closed their doors.

Alcoran, who manage the Master's Typewriter Services and Repair Shop near the now Ateneo de Zamboanga University since 1978 has brought his equipment and tools to his home near the Western Mindanao Medical Center.

His over five decades of repairing typewriters has generated for him enough clients and he is just anyway, "a telephone call away." While hardcore owners of typewriters still call on him for repairs, he said he has to visit offices to check for repair jobs.

But instead of the previous rate of about 500 per overhaul of a unit, he has doubled his rates. "After all, there are few typewriter technicians these days."

Except for three stores selling typewriters in Zamboanga, there are now over three dozens computer stores and shops in the city. They sell machines - computer units -that have pushed away typewriters from their once no-touch precious spaces in offices and homes.

Paul Gonzales, in charge of the office equipment section of Golden Bell Commercial, admits that there is a drop in the sale of typewriters. However, he said that the drop in the number of customers is being offset by typewriter users in the barangays and municipalities in the provinces.

Computers may be common in urban areas but not so in the barangays or hinterland areas in the region. He said there are orders from barangay officials. He declined to say how many - for obvious reasons.

When contacted by the Philippines News Agency this week, Gonzales said that the only unit that he has on stock is an Olympia 24-inch carriage typewriter. The selling price for this unit is P30,795 or about the price for a modern computer system complete with printer and other peripherals.

The other typewriter store that used to be located in the heart of the city has transferred to a rural barangay some six kilometers from downtown. The telephone number listed in the directory for this typewriter supplier does not even ring anymore and the line is probably dead.

It would be interesting to find out how typewriters have stood their grounds or yielded to the onslaught of computers. That - would be another story to tell.

Meanwhile, those addicted to typewriters admit to less use of the equipment. They have shifted to computer for ease of work and to "adapt with the times and the age of computers."

RETIRING THE UNITS. Erlinda Jacobe used to manage JEM Computer Shoppe in this city from 1992 to 2003. She gave up the business not because of poor sales but because owners of other shops that opened up in the city pirated her employees.

Linda, who is a retired teacher, writes a column in the Zamboanga Peninsula Newspaper.

"Yes, I have retired my typewriters, an Olivetti and Silverreed Portables and an Olympia "for the table" -meaning a bigger unit. "I cannot part with them, because unlike them, computers cannot be called antique items. " Yes, she also has a desktop and a laptop at home.

ABC 11 Television News Director in Zamboanga Ronaldo Lledo owns an Olivetti and an Olympia Portable. "I cannot throw them away for memory sake."

He also owns a laptop and a desktop computer unit at home. "They (typewriters) may lose their use these days because of the prevalent use of computers, but I started my work in media with my portable," he said.

"I intend to keep them in one corner of the house, oiled and ready for use although I won't use them anymore. They will stay there for as long as I can see to it that they are there."

"I miss the tick tack of the keys. Their clacking sounds help in the flow of thoughts when I write," he said. No such sounds come from a laptop or a desktop.

Novelist Antonio Enriquez who started writing for money with the Saturday Herald in 1967 remembers that he used to submit his stories longhand. In the years that followed, he has acquired a Royale Portable, an Olympia Portable and in 1967 an Olympia Standard typewriter. By then he had a regular job as an English Professor at the Siliman University and can afford these machines.

He was taken in as an Assistant Regional Director of the then Department of Public Information (DPI) with the onset of martial law. He was with the department with its dozens of typewriters and teleprinters.

He managed to buy a desktop computer in the early 1990's and from then on uses these "intelligent typewriters to continue my writing."

He remembers that in his near 46 years as a short story writer and novelist he produced most of his writings on typewriters. He has published over 50 short stories, authored eight books; four novels and four compilations of short stories. He is now working on two other novels - on a computer.

"I cannot throw away the typewriters," he said. And although the portables are in various stages of disrepair and rust, "the heavy duty Olympia typewriter is still in running condition at home."

Like some sweetheart or lover, "I still poke my fingers on it once in a while, although I don't use the unit anymore," Enriquez added.

I, too, have retired my portable typewriters and have upgraded or replaced my desktop about five times. A daughter gave me a laptop to keep me on line in my work (during brownouts) and as a standby unit when the desktop gets infected by viruses or when it simply "hangs up".

Today I do some jobs at a local television station and a newspaper office. Decades ago, typewriters were mandatory equipment in these media offices.

Not anymore, these days.