Mom's Little Pink Portable Typewriter

Originally Written Between 2013-2015

It’s hard to know where to start when I look at my mom’s little portable pink typewriter.  Dad bought it for her when they started the roller rink back in 1955.  The rink was mom’s baby.  She was the marketing, advertising, finance, communication and management department all rolled into one person.  First things first, she had to get word out that the roller rink was in business.  She created the ads on her little pink portable and placed the ads in the local newspaper.   Eventually, she wrote and typed a weekly column about upcoming parties, events, skating shows, and the skaters for that paper.  She named the column “Roller Ramblings.” 

That little pink portable typewriter sure got a workout.  Besides writing the column, mom had created some marketing techniques such as the “Happy Birthday Club.”  All one had to do was sign up and give your name, mailing address and birthdate.  Once a month, mom would type up these tiny little envelopes with the birthday boy’s or girl’s name and address and mail them a card that entitled them to one free admission to skate any time during the year!  I can’t remember how many cards she sent out every month; but, once I learned to type, I know I was recruited to type up the envelopes on that little pink portable.

She hit the big time when she was asked to write a newspaper column about the history, interesting people, businesses and events in Forest Lake, our hometown.  She typed all of her columns on the little pink portable.  She’d type several drafts, of course, before handing in the final version.  She did this every week for several years and then she branched out into huge historical research projects that took a number of weeks to create.  I can’t imagine all of the paper and typewriter ribbon she had to buy to type those articles!  And, she later confessed to me that she was only paid 10 cents a column inch.  Maybe that’s why she branched out into full-page articles so she could pay for her typewriter ribbon!

Then, in 1993, mom was asked to write the history of Forest Lake for the town’s Centennial celebration.  This book, called, “Reflections” included excerpts from her newspaper columns and a wealth of new material that she wrote just for the book.  By this time, the little pink portable just couldn’t handle the volume of typing that was required to create this book.  The word processor had been invented by then; however, mom didn’t have the time to learn how to type on these “new fangled things.”  And so, the pink portable was put to rest and mom was given an electric typewriter to use.  But, she was used to a portable typewriter - one that didn’t need electricity or like today, a computer in order to type on it.  So, I was recruited to type the book since I typed a whole lot faster than mom. 

When mom had an estate sale when she moved out of their home to go into an apartment, she had marked $8 on the little pink portable.  No one bought it.  And that’s why I have it today.  And, I intend to keep it.