4- Friday, January 22, 1993 — North Shore News

iters endure in a

& GARDEN OF BIASES

A GREAT change occurred
in civilization i in 1989. ;

“Oh, no; Not the collapse of |
“communism. ‘Bigger than that. +:
“Polson Typewriters changed ‘its:
*, name to Polson’ 's Of fice Depot :
“Comp. . on nee
Communism, you'see; could .-
make a comeback (the Marxist:
bureaucracy i in the New Demo- -
_cratic government behaves as if it
“Never went away and its. lessons
"were never learned). ‘The typewrit-
: er can’t. |
“Or is it proving more tenacious
than you might think? :
: Notwithstanding that change of

name in 1989 — signalling the» »)

- obvious ‘eclipse of the typewriter

; aby the’ ‘computer ~— Polson’s still; .’
_sells and services the old reliables.
There is still a listing for Polson’

a Typewriters i in the phone book.’

_-« Polson is the premier typewriter
.. company in Vancouver,’ ./
“dominating a dwindling field, now
~‘largely consisting of the equivalent”

Of the Mom & Pop corner grocery
“store.j 5 os#

_/. Walk into its highly functional,

: no-nonsense ‘West Broadway ,
= quarters and you pass bya,
| mini-museum of typewriters near’
“the entrance...”
‘Yes, heyond that are, the Up-

to-date word processors and the
fancy computerized typewriter
hybrids, and faxes and other
thoroughly modern machinery.

But here and there you'll see a
few genuine new manual and elec-
tric typewriters. Also plenty of the
famous IBM Selectrics — the state
of the art when introduced in
1961, and still being sold as
rebuilts for around $400-$500 to
many of Polson’s high- profile
clients.

~ Art Skill, Polson’ s general
manager and an Eagle Harbor res-
ident -— you knew there'd be a

North Shore angle in this piece,

surely? — told me that “typewriters
still make up about 30% of .
Polson’s sales and about 50% of
its service business.”

Polson’s has 29 fuil- and part-
“time émployees, and 10 of them
are technicians trained to repair
both typewriters and word pro-
cessors. te '

« The company has contracts with
many well-known fegal and other

firms, and, said Mr. Skill, in a lot
of such offices you can find

typewriters and the computerized
gizmos side by side. :

/ “Some people have never got
used to, computers,” said Mr.
Skill, whose work origins ‘definite-

ily belong to the typewriter culture. -

He began his career a1 Rem-

ington, ata time when there was
something of a Typewriter Row in
Richards Street =- three such

companies in a single block, now

occupied by The Bay’ s parkade.

: Polson’s has the lived-in at- -
mosphere and reputation of an’
old. Vancouver compaiiy, sol was -
moderately surprised to learn that.
it was started as recently as 1965.
' Mc. Skill cook it over ia the late

"1960s. An allied company, Mod- .|”
-ern Business Machines Corp. Ltd., ,

at Cambie and Sixth; sells a wide

‘range of office equipment.

Most important, Mr. Skiil is a

hice’ man, and | make a point of
dealing only with nice people.

1 know he is nice because he is

othe owner of two beautiful,
Labrador retrievers, Blue and"

“WEICHT Warcniens CENTRE
: 102 123 E. ibm St.

Blondie, and of course he lives in
West Vancouver, renowned for
the niceness of its residents.
{also learned that Polson's has
a depot of old machines, so it is a
relief to know that this company
will be able to keep the typewrit-
ers tapping for many years to
come. .
As you can well imagine, ter-
tibly old peeple like me have an
affection for the grand old man- |

.ual typewriter that goes back

almost to the age of the quiil pen.
1 have a wonderfully fresh rec- .
ollection of “discovering” my fa-

_ ther’s typewriter in, I'd say, 1939

or 1940, and struggling to lift-it
up on to the dining room table of |
our house on Tisdale Street in
Hamiltan, Ontario, the jewel of
Canadian cities.

{can remember the fascination
of hitting the keys and — sheer
magic! — seeing the appropriate
Ictter appear on the sheet of paper
atthe top.

Maybe too I was fascinated
with the machine because it,
reminded me of my father's work.

He was a teletype operator and
mechanic for Canadian Press for
50 years — longer service than
any CP employce in history. Tele-’
type machines: there’s a nostalgic
term for anyone in the media to-.
day. .

So I have been using typewriters

‘for more than 50 years.

‘And I have made countless
doilars using them, though I sup-

pose the income tax department -

has a preity good idea how many

. dollars.

“Notice that | said “using type-
writers.”"

Because I suppose now isa
good a time as any to confess:

1 can't type.

-. P never learned.

i type with two fingers, j
about the same as | did when 1.
first hammered Pop’s typewriter,

vat age five or six. Z :

It is, | suppose,.a clz sssic case o
arrested development; r
“But don’t think I’m technologi-,

cally old: fashioned! fe y

2-93, 1993. Cann be combined with any saheroffed ind i isnot available forat

Individual weight loos may vary. Ld 1992 ohn Watchers Intemadonal, Inc, Owner of the Registered ‘Trademark, All Rights Reserved, -

igh-tech wont

In my weekly work | can and
do operate a big computer linked
fo a mainframe. And a tiny lap-
top. i

I’ve yot a modem that links my
laptop to my daily place of |
employment and, beyond that, to
an electronic library called In-
fomart — located, wonderfully
(it’s wonderful to me) in my

hometown of beautiful Hamilton. .
But I also have a terrifi ic type-
writer. :
‘Wsa Remington i7;and ’m
told it’s, oh, something like 40 or
50 years old. | ‘ :
It’s typing these words. ‘
_All by itself. Remember; I can 7

"MUNICIPAL ACT.
SECTION 656 :

“LOCAL INITIATIVE: "Construction:
north, of 15th, Street between Forbés Avenue nd.Jone:

“ Aventie .

a :

“TAKE NOTICE THAT:

The, Council of The Corporation of the City of, North

Varicouver intends to construct a Lane North of 15th
Street between Forbes ‘Avenue and Jones Avenue.: At

‘the time of lane paving, existing driveways only will’.

be paved toa maximum ‘of 1. 20 meires inside the

The owners’ portion of thee cost of this project, without
speed arresters, shall be an annual i charge of $8.04 for

ie owners’ portion of the ¢ cost tof this project: with;
" speed arresters, shall be an annual charge of $8:24 for:

7 : each metre of taxable frontage t to be ay chargéd

. years with interest calculated at a |

cen

. Ferons desing to petition eres und taki g

Sacsecbait at least 50% ‘of the me value: of the
‘lands involved, must sign such petition nore Counell

at a
‘and where | two or. inore persons are the owners ‘of the

_ property, a “majority. of them must Sign, the ‘petition

limited company, an officer of the company’ must sign
~ the’ petition and show: his, or her positio

"Bruce A. Hawhshaw |
City. Clerk’ oe