Remember this?
Well, what do you think of the new addition?
I was given one of these typewriters by my parents the Christmas I was 12.
It was love at first sight.
The typewriter is an Olivetti Lettera 22 and apparently is so iconic it's included in MOMAs permanent collection. (I'm not sure why the design didn't include a number 1 key. You have to use the lower case L).
That Christmas present became one of my most treasured posessions. I'm not sure what I typed in those early days, though this is amongst the handwritten recipes in the cook book I started (inspired by Miss Benson in Domestic Science lessons) at about the same time.
Incidentally, I'm certain that cheeseboards never featured on the menus in my family when I was growing up and I doubt I'd ever seen (or pronounced) let alone tasted Brie and Bel Paese.
Sadly, I have no idea what happened to that original typewriter. It certainly accompanied me when I went away to university and it definitely took up residence in our first house after we were married. I remember laboriously typing addresses on Christmas card envelopes (trying to impress?) that first year of wedded bliss. It also came in handy in my early days as a social worker, when case notes and reports were still being typed, to bypass the typists' towering in trays and do it myself, though I was still using the amateur's two index finger method.
The Mister thinks it's still somewhere in our current house but I've searched and searched with no success.
So there was no hesitation when I spotted this one for sale.
It's not a perfect specimen but it's a great blast from my past.