That typewriter may be old, but for what it’s worth, my Grandpa never thinks to offload it. I don’t know what to make out of that. About few days in a week he will sit in front of it; typing with so much zeal you can tell from the noise. According to my mother, the machine was from his heyday as a lecturer… I heard he taught chemistry for undergraduates. Or something like that.
Admittedly the typewriter is not in bad condition. Grandpa is meticulous person when it comes to personal stuffs. The typeface is largely uncorroded; he regularly changes the ribbon; there’s no noticeable rust. It’s only… old. And noisy. At least that’s as far as I’m concerned.
The problem is, of course I’m hardly concerned. Seriously now: who cares about typewriters in this computer age? Nowadays we have Microsoft Word and Excel, for crying out loud. But Grandpa politely disagrees. He had been with that typewriter since 1960s, and never thought to leave it. Few days a week he will sit down and produce that unique sound in his house…
TICK-TOCK-TOCKTOCKTOCK. TICK-TOCKTOCK-TICK. TOCK-TOCK.
CTING.
You have the idea.
My parents actually persuaded to buy him electric typewriter, but to no avail. We even tried to teach him benefits of computers—data can be saved into disks, you can delete and insert words—but even then he only had passing interest. He never wanted to part with his old companion. And we, of course, could only shrug it off.
But perhaps interestingly, I once talked about this with my mom. In fact her explanation actually made sense.
“Grandpa never likes computer, does he?”
“Why, perhaps he likes it the old way,” my mother replied. “You know, it’s been with him for decades.”
“But isn’t that old– I mean, it’s noisy and all…”
My mom then told me something—a story from her childhood.
“Back then when I was nine or ten, you know, he bought that typewriter. Office bargain. You see, before that, he couldn’t get all his lecture notes typed by his own. Often times he had to ask the secretary. Other times, he borrowed some colleagues’ typewriter.”
“Almost every night our house was filled with typewriter sound, you know? The usual ‘tick-tock-tick-tock’ thing. At first it was annoying. He liked to work deep into the night. Sometimes up until midnight we could still hear him.”
“But each day after that is good enough for us. He typed, copied and sold his lecture notes to students—we got little more income. He stayed home more often; he put on his new hobby. He sent some short stories to local paper too, you know? But rarely get published I recall. In the end everybody’s happy with that.”
“But why can’t a computer do that? Nowadays people don’t use that thing anymore!”
“One day, maybe you’d understand. There are things like sentimentality and age-old ingrained ideas… things like attachment, so to say. It’s hard to let go, see.” Then she smiled. “Why, isn’t that what people say, ‘Old dog can’t learn new trick?’ Maybe Grandpa is like that!”
***
Nowadays when I look at Grandpa I wonder about things. Why do you like that typewriter so much, Gramps? Why? It’s noisy, it can’t have pictures; and you can’t do backspace! But still, I realized what my mom said. It was something like sentimentality that drives him in. Things like “first typewriter that helped me do things”, “the machine that allowed me free time working all-nights”, et cetera. In the end, it’s not something exactly logical nor exactly nonsensical—rather, it’s combination of both.
Baffling, perhaps. But not outrageously nonsensical.
Still, when I think of it, isn’t that what makes human human? We attach ourselves to things that have (or had) positive values, and try clinging to it—even when we outlive its usefulness. Just like Grandpa cling to his “helpful” typewriter all this time, not interested at all with its modern counterpart…
I wonder if that applies to other things, too.
(disclaimer: the above story is fiction and largely metaphorical)
*sepintas* eh, lagunya Ken Hirai?
tick-tock-tick-tock?
It sounds like an old clock to me. π
“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get” – Warren Buffet
.
Ah, sentimentil…
Tidak bisa dijelaskan tapi semua orang akan mengalaminya…
Kenangan…
Masa Lalu..
Eksploitasi masa lalu itu memang nikmat…
*Somehow teringat wawancara Pak Harmoko di Kick Andy…, lah jangan-jangan tokoh di cerpen itu cucunya Pak Harmoko ya?*
this is actually what i have been campaigning for years π tapi apa benar fiction?? storynya bagus π
@ rifu
Grandfather’s clock, kali…
@ Asop
Bunyinya memang seperti itu. Tergantung yang ngetik, ritmenya bisa berupa: “tick-tock. tick. tock. tocktocktock.” π
*serius*
@ ManusiaSuper
Well, something like that…
@ Amd
Err… saya bukan cucunya Pak Harmoko, kalau itu yang dimaksud. (ninja)
@ gentole
Sejujurnya sih, biarpun kisahnya fiksi, banyak tokohnya terinspirasi orang betulan. π
Kira2 selama semingguan sampai 4 hari sebelum saya journey to the west, nyokap saya masih menyibukkan saya tuk mengetik ulang setumpukan dokumen2nya yang hasil ketikan mesin tik (penuh coretan ralat dan tip-ex) jadi ketikan komputer yang lebih rapi. Beliau juga ngimpi mesin tik elektrik tapi gak tau mau cari dimana hari gini. π
NB: ketikan2 tsb cuma separo yang suxes kuketik ulang karena terlalu banyak πTapi, mesin ketik masih tetap digunakan sampai sekarang kan, Sora? π
@ Amd
Tak terkira nikmatnya, Mas Bro ; ) Pada tahap tertentu bikin gak habis pikir π
@ jensen99
…dan hurufnya pada keriting semua?
@ Mr. El-Adani
Kalau di kantor kelurahan/kecamatan, banyak. π
*terakhir kali lihat waktu perbarui KTP*
Iya ini, saya juga masih lihat kalau di kantor kelurahan/kecamatan menggunakannya, mungkin karena faktor kelekatan dan kebiasaan ya??
CMIIW
bahasa inggrisnya bagus banget ^^
Why need pictures if you can do ASCII art? π *dikeplak*
@ Mr. El-Adani
Alasan lain yang terpikir, sepertinya karena lebih mudah mengisi formulir/blanko pakai mesin tik. Kalau pakai komputer & printer agak repot menyesuaikannya. π
Tapi ya itu dugaan aja sih…
@ arwinkim
Terima kasih. ^^
@ lambrtz
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@sora
I know, tapi pencitraan bunyi nya ambigu sih π
LOL @ ASCII facepalm π
btw, ga nyoba masukin ke http://flashfiction.ubudwritersfestival.com ?
di kantor juga masih ada mesin ketik jadul itu, kadang-kadang juga masih pake itu buat bikin dokumen. tapi seru juga, suaranya itu loo~~ lucu jadi inget jaman lomba jurnalistik dulu…
waktu saya smp kelas 1 dulu masih ada pelajaran mengetik…
seminggu sekali setiap hari senin, masing-masing siswa berjalan beriringan membawa mesin tik dari ruang penyimpanan menuju kelas…
oh, dah pernah juga diajarin ASCII art, cuma buat selingan… π
Saya sedang jalan2 dan nyasar kemari. Hm, old typewriter… saya suka ceritanya, atau lebih tepatnya saya suka semua fiksi yang ada.
^^ Saya baca cerita di atas sambil berusaha mentranslate dalam pikiran. Kok jadinya agak lucu di beberapa bagian yah.
Lha, kakek = anjing dong…. π
Salam kenal…
@ rifu
Ini cuma iseng aja kok. ^^;;
@ rukia^^ | Felicia
Kesimpulan: jadi mesin tik sampai sekarang masih populer? π
*halah*
@ Lambertus
Salam kenal juga. π
Euh, itu sebenarnya kalimat ungkapan bahasa Inggris. ^^;; Pengertian selengkapnya:
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/You+can%27t+teach+an+old+dog+new+tricks