Last year, there was a program on our local PBS station about the bicycle clubs of the Twin Cities in the late 1800s. They were very much like modern-day computer user groups, with bicycle enthusiasts gathering to hold meetings and ride together along the shores of Lake Calhoun. They even had club bicycling uniforms.

I wondered: as typewriter technology emerged, were there ever typewriter clubs, again akin to modern computer clubs? Were they the technerds of their day who held parlor-room meetings to discuss tips and tricks, and to gawk at the latest model?

Of course, there are not-so-secret typewriter clubs today. Although the newsletter is now its only remnant, if you subscribe to ETCetera, you are a member of the Early Typewriter Collectors’ Association. Or maybe you identify with the NaNoWriMo Typewriter Brigade. Strikethru’s blog has become sort of the hub of the so-called Typosphere, which I guess you could consider a club. Heck, it even has its own publication!

In a just world, we would all be magically transported to a college dorm, and be 19 again, with tons of time to kill, so we could make this film for film class.

We would also have a secret underground typewriter society.

Being old sucks!