I was wondering and wrote about it
Joe Van Cleave moved away from typewriters this week. For the assignment he requested we write about a special place we had when we were young. This presented a challenge. There was no single spot, no gathering point, for friends and me. We did live in a changing place that is prominent in mid-century America – the suburban development. Being one of the first families in our area I was steeped in the change sweeping America.
Soon to be memories
We savor this strong taste now
Before typewriters many jobs required a fine “hand.” A hand in this context meant the quality of one’s writing. Clerks, certainly, required this skill. Their function was to create legible records. Professionals such as lawyers also required a fine hand. With the introduction of typewriters a fine hand became less important and speed and accuracy with the machine became the skill needed.
At some point this extended to resumes and job applications. When did the hand written resume die out? Certainly before I entered the job market in the 1970s. I have memories of my mom typing dad’s resume in the early 1960s. A typewritten resume was required as much as descring the family status. “Married with three children” was included with job history and military discharge status. My wife reports that in the 1980s there were still some ads that requested hand written resumes – oddly these were for laboring, physical effort jobs, not office positions.
Now resumes are expected in electronic form. The frequent requirement is a Word document or PDF file. Paper is not appreciated.
When might we return to handwritten resumes? I suspect a candidate for some creative position in advertising or gallery work or perhaps someone wishing to be a personal assistant will lead the way. The word of their hand written application and resume will spread and be emulated.
I’m not holding my breath.
Last week Joe Van Cleave’s writing group anthropormophized their typewriters. This week we compare using a typewriter vs other ways of writing. How does the physical experience affect your writing? I reflected on this during the entire week.
Joe Van Cleave is leading the willing through a set of writing exercises using typewriters. The first one was to anthropomorphize your typewriter and have it … well go to the link and read for yourself. Part of the point of the exercise is to bang out a draft. “Show us your process.”
This is my typewriter’s story. The image below links to the full resolution scan of the page.
