Remembering the typing pools!!

Who remembers offices of yesteryear with typing pools, old style typewriters, correction fluid, filing rooms and telephones that were cleaned frequently by a firm of telephone cleaners? Computers light years away then!!

......and Gestetners before photo copiers.

Not to mention carbon paper and ribbon changes!

My partner remembers learning to type at school on old typewriters with carbon paper and look now, how would we ever cope in business today without computers, sending emails all over the world and getting replies in a split second. The digital age, groovy..

I started work at Firth Browns in 1959 aged 15 as an office junior.

At age 17 I became a clerk and had the option of a dictaphone or short hand typist. Obviously, at age 17 the company of a typist sitting by my desk for a while was the prefered option, therefore the dictaphone was little used . Also had my own personal rubber stamp for outgoing mail, or post as it was known then, with my name and personal telephone extension number on it. How important I felt. Still have this stamp 50 odd years on. It's wrinkled with age now, not unlike myself .

regards, Peter.

What about the comptomitor operators

I was a member of the typing pools in the Estates Surveyor's and Town Clerk's Departments in the late 50's and early 60's - happy days. I was Carol S. Would love to hear from any of my old comrades.

---------- Post added 16-04-2016 at 19:47 ----------

:love:I was a member of the typing pools in the Estates Surveyor's and Town Clerk's Departments in the late 50's and early 60's - happy days. I was Carol S. Would love to hear from any of my old comrades.

Does anyone remember learning to type to music? We used to learn to - Sleigh bells ring are you listening!!

I learned to type at Richmond College, 1969/70. Big old typewriters - Imperial, Remmingtons. Our shorthand and typing teacher was called Miss Benson and at the beginning of each typing lesson she would say "Get out your Wormsleys." This was the name of company that published the book we learnt to type from. At the bottom of the Moor, as many will remember, was a furniture/bed shop called Bensons. A few years later, all gone for a while now, it changed and the new owner was Wormsley. I thought that was quite freaky. I spent several months in 1972 at James Neill on Napier Street in the shipping department, using the old big typewriters - tippex, carbon paper (several sheets sometimes), having to change the ribbon in the typewriter; telephones cleaned by outside companies. How we managed without computers etc is anybody's guess but you manage with what you've got and what you know.