Hehehe, yeah, I remember my Plebe knife. Blade with a Marlinspike. Hell, one thing that I took with me in my day was an old mechanical typewriter. Came in VERY handy getting those term papers done. Oh, and getting some extra coin typing classmate's term papers, too. Buck a page. . . .
But who know that those "keyboarding" skills would come in handy with the advent of the personal computer.
Let me stand in support of my SAF colleague
@cmakin .
Before I went off to college I took a typing (21st c.: “keyboarding”) course at the local community college. At that time, with mainframes and dummy terminals, a few years away from PCs, few college-bound people knew how to type using the QWERTY method. People going to “secretarial college” or office admin schools did. From my summer job earnings, I bought a lake blue Smith-Corona electric typewriter. At that time, college writing assignments could be submitted written or typed. Mine, of course, were cleanly typed, with lovely footers, headers, bibliography, etc., all per Strunk & White Manual of Style. Over the course of 4 years, I built a profitable little business. I would type your papers for $1/page, exactly as written. Correction of spelling and grammar errors, $2/page. Consultation on outline and other writing tips, negotiable flat fee depending on paper length. I would not write anyone’s paper. I knew exactly how much I could type over a weekend, and would book in advance, then take no more. I would not do allnighters for anyone. I always threw in a nice binder and good quality paper. Professors noticed, and I got work from them. Faculty rates started at $3.50/page. One of my other campus jobs was letting people into the dorm after hours on the weekend, after they showed their ID, as we weren’t quite at the electronic key pass stage. I did a lot of work then. This was my “fun money” in college, for beach weekends, mountain hiking trips, eating off-campus. Though my scholarship paid for all tuition, books, room and board, and summer research projects, this was my first taste of serious money I earned for myself for discretionary spending.
I still have that blue Smith-Corona, in a storage tote, still in its case. Maybe it will be “antique tech” one day. It looks like the photo attached.
I apologize for the trip down my own memory lane away from thread intent!