Seeing as I have this inexplicable collection of forty-some well-maintained manual typewriters, gathered up over decades of instinctual accumulation, I decided it’s time to introduce Little Miss to the best American writing machines ever constructed with this Classic-12, a later rendition of the glorious Smith-Corona Super-5 series, complete with the ingenious parallel-action keys that distinguished the Super-5s as the peak of that company’s considerable advertising prowess. Plus, it is my typewriter with the breeziest, most devil-may-care font, and tense times like these demand nothing less than a breezy je ne sais quoi in our manner and an occasional liberation from the saccharine addiction of the screen.

As I bring my little clockwork army of the written word back out of their lonesome sojourn, I think I’m going to start writing charming little letters to my friends and family, but Little Miss is well ahead of me already.

©2020 text and photo Joe Belknap Wall