I might have been able to resist. But it was an Olympia. And it's the first typewriter I've seen at a thrift store in a long, long while. And it was eight bucks. And I'm only human.
I now have three SM-9s, one of each generation: a cream colored and green one, this silvery-white and black one, and Stinky representing the last white-and-black-with-orange-symbol-thing generation. This one, per the serial number, is apparently from 1968.
It needs a new ribbon eventually (though the one it has actually is pretty darned good!), and there's a lot of icky eraser dust inside, but otherwise, this may be the cleanest typewriter I've ever found in the wild. It's beautiful.
It also really, really, really fits snugly in that case. Holy smokes...I practically had to use a crowbar to extract it.
Edit to add a very small sample of the typeface--just a standard Olympia 11 pitch type.
6 comments:
How apt, considering your location. :-)
I have the exact same case on my SM9. The only way I've been able to consistently remove the typer from its case is to rest my stocking feet on either side of it, wrap my fingers into the gaps on either side, and pull/kick at the same time. I was afraid I was going to break something the first time I did it, it was so hopelessly wedged.
Beautiful find! Looking forward to seeing the typeface in a post.
I actually suspected Steve Jenks (his name is on a punched sticky label inside) might have glued the thing into the case, for some unexplained purpose of his own. Scared me a bit. But it finally came loose. And I managed not to drop it when it did.
Man, I haven't found a good machine at a thrift store in so long it's stupid. Nice work. Extra bonus points for finding an Olympia; there is nothing quite like one.
In general, if any of the local thrift stores *do* have a manual typewriter, it's a plastic-bodied typewriter-shaped-object from the 80s, usually sans case. I did find my Galaxie at a thrift store, but that was a long time ago. I've certainly never found anything as nice as this before. I saw that case tucked away on a bottom shelf and thought, "Huh...that looks like an Olympia case, kind of." It's sort of...padded. So it looks a little different, and with it pushed back on the shelf I wasn't sure it was even a typewriter. Then I pulled it out and opened it and took a peek, and...whoa! Silver SM-9!!
I suppose I shouldn't rub in that the eight dollar price was *before* they applied some sort of daily discount thingie at the register, right?
What a find! I too have only ever seen hideous Toshiba plastic typewriters at the thrift store. Furthermore, the only typers one finds at antique shops around here are hideously mangled things with broken space bars and bents type bars that are still somehow priced at $100+.
My SM-9, although of a more recent vintage, was similarly difficult to dislodge from the case, if for no other reason than its sheer weight.
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