This interesting article was published in our local Journal & Courier newspaper. It appeared several weeks ago in The Times, a small paper local to the area highlighted in the article. I didn’t realize people still used manual typewriters, but after reading this I understand why they do!
Crown Point typewriter repair man one of the last of his kind
by LAURI HARVEY KEAGLE
The Times
Al Stuckey is a dying breed.
“I’m absolutely a dinosaur,” the Crown Point man said.
As far as he and any of his customers know, he’s the only typewriter repairman left in Northwest Indiana. The Chicago native runs Crown Point Office Machines from his home, with a tiny shop in his garage. He repairs other office machines, too—fax machines, computer printers—but it’s the typewriters that make him stand out.
“A couple of years ago on Channel 11, they had a guy on an interview in Chicago who claimed to be the last typewriter repairman in the Midwest,” Stuckey said. “I wrote his name down because I wanted to call him and tell him he wasn’t alone.”
Stuckey has been in the office machine repair business for 40 years, starting in 1970. He credits the military for his profession.
“The Army taught me electronics,” he said.
When he was discharged from the Army in 1970, he was hired by a repair company in downtown Chicago, working mostly mechanical jobs.
“It was mostly calculators then, believe it or not,” Stuckey said. “At the time, calculators, when you went to multiply or divide, went chinka, chinka, chinka with the tapes.”
It was a good job, but he didn’t like working in the city. He went to school at Thornton College (now South Suburban College in South Holland) and then to work for a Hammond company and a Lansing company.
Over time, he decided to branch out on his own.
“In this business, few people ever see this place,” he said from his home office. “My time is spent outside. I figured rather than spend money on a storefront and employees, I’d build an addition on my home and make this my office.”
People are often surprised to hear he works on typewriters.
“Some weeks, I have more typewriters than anything else,” Stuckey said. “Now, it’s mostly computer printers, fax machines.”
“I still see one or two manual typewriters a year.”
Those, he said, are most often owned and used by elderly customers.
“I had a fellow who came in wanting to buy a manual typewriter for his wife, who had Parkinson’s,” Stuckey said. “She could no longer speak, but could type, and with an electric typewriter or computer keyboard, she’d hit one key and type a line of letters. With the manual, she could do one at a time. I sold him one and told him I’d refund the money when he brought it back.”
Last year, Stuckey got a Royal Typewriter from the 1920s or 1930s.
“All it needed was to be cleaned up and lubricated,” he said. “They were made so well, they last forever.”
Victor Makiejus, of St. John Township, is one of Stuckey’s clients. The 79-year-old author used a manual typewriter for years until his daughter-in-law bought him an electric one.
He said he has written about 400 pages, all by typewriter, about his family history since 1865. He was born in Lithuania.
“I went through World War II; I was 14 years old when the war ended,” Makiejus said. “We went through a lot.”
Makiejus said he only has about 24 pages to go and plans to finish them on his typewriter. He knows most people would prefer a computer, but not him.
“I feel that on the computer it could disappear, and I’d lose all my work,” he said. “With this, it’s safe and I can make copies and keep them in hard covers.”
Stuckey said he remembers when the IBM Selectric was all the rage in the 1980s. He still works on them more than any other typewriter.
“Anybody that deals with a lot of forms that are not all under their control and that they can’t get on a computer still use typewriters,” he said.
That is precisely the case for the registrar’s office at Valparaiso University, where Becky Strain serves as office manager.
Strain said transcripts for students who attended VU prior to the 1980s are kept on typewritten documents. The university would like to scan the old transcripts into their computer records, she said, “but even with that technology, we might not be able to change the name.”
Currently, the registrar’s office has three IBM Selectric II typewriters from the early 1980s. One has a ribbon with permanent ink on it, “so when you type on a transcript, it will never smudge or rub off.”
“It was such a relief to find Al,” Strain said. “I researched on the Internet to find him, and I sent a campuswide e-mail to the other departments to let everyone know he’s there if they need him. He’s wonderful.”
Stuckey said he is seeing fewer and fewer calls for repairs, saying we’ve become more of a “throw-away society” fueled by the equipment manufacturers.
“The manufacturers put a price point on them to where the parts are so expensive it isn’t worth repairing so they can force the purchase or a new machine,” he said. “A circuit board that costs $15 to make costs me $700 to purchase. Even with your TVs, one circuit board operates the whole thing.”
Stuckey likens himself to the lonely Maytag repairman from the old television commercials and said being the last of a dying breed is a bit of a blessing and a curse.
“Unfortunately, the fellows I worked with in this area have either retired, moved away or passed on,” he said. “There’s no one around to talk to anymore.
“If I need help or advice, I’m on my own.”
A long time ago, when eBay still had a blog of it’s own, I joined in with a group that posts penny auctions every Tuesday. The eBay blog is long gone and the group is very small now, but I still post a penny auction each week.
It is my humble opinion that eBay sellers should run some charity auctions from time to time because we are part of our local and our online communities.
