Hi,
Glenn is not permitted to read this.
When I was in high school I worked in a typewriter repair shop for a year. Being at the bottom of the Totem Pole of importance in the shop (there was the owner, the sales lady and me) I got the job of cleaning, repairing, tuning, etc. all of the High School typing class typewriters.
Have you even thought of cleaning and repairing over a hundred Royal typewriters that were used the previous nine months by high school students? Well they were quite similar to the one in the picture.
I doubt if I weighed 90 (no there is not a 1 in front of that number) pounds. I would go up to the second floor (no elevator) where all of the typing classes were held. I would hook the bottom of one machine on my hip, grab another one by the front of the frame with the hand on that side. Then I would hook up another on the other hip and pick up the fourth machine by the frame. I would carry these down stairs and put them in the trunk of the car. Then I would repeat the process until the trunk and the back seat floor were full.
Then I would haul them into the shop...put them up on shelves and go to work on them one-at-a-time. Dismantel the machine. Put it in the whatever solution to soak. Scrub it with brushes. Dry it. Put the parts on my bench and re-assemble using new rubber and other parts as needed.
Doesn't that sound like a lot more fun than playing baseball with your friends? Well actually, yes. WWII had started. I used the money to buy gasoline. I went out dancing seven nights a week with all of the gals my baseball friends were too tired to handle. The guys did their homework and had to sleep "to be ready for school tomorrow."
Lucky for me, my parents gave me an IQ high enough that I didn't have to study to get a high school diploma. Of course I had a very rude awakening when I hit chemistry, physics, analytical geometry, neurology, etc., etc. in pre-med.
I grew up during WWII...well I grew up a little. I was still totally not-with-it yet. What my future wife saw in me I will never understand.
Anyway here I am a hundred years later, an old man. Myrna says I was a child most of my life and then became an old man skipping mature adulthood.
Sorry for the babbling...you know how it is with us old guys and our stories.
Enjoy,
Jim