With permission, I'm sharing an enjoyable story sent to me by Tom Rehkopf:
In addition to reducing inventory, one of the fun things about selling a few typewriters at Christmas time is meeting new friends. Kennedy (age 14) was having ribbon issues on her Dreyfuss QDL*, so her mom drove her to the local Starbucks, where, amongst all the laptop computer crowd, we held a brief ribbon seminar (and drew a few bemused onlookers I might add).
*Royal Quiet De Luxe designed by Henry Dreyfuss
All fixed, apparently just in the nick of time, she immediately started typing away with a big smile on her face. Great fun. Kennedy watched the ribbon changing ceremonies intently, asking questions as I moved along. When I finished, I moved the typewriter over to her to take it for a test ride, and she immediately banged out the text you see, typing at a nice crisp controlled pace, much to my amazement.
I thought she was going to get a round of applause from the laptop crowd, but they just watched fascinated. Truly an unexpected, fun moment. BTW, I gave her a round of applause even if nobody else did. It got me that smile you see.
Nice going, Kennedy and Tom!
By the way, Tom is a highly accomplished mathematician, engineer, and IT expert. You can read more about him and his love of typewriters in this fine story by Jeffrey Albertson.