When I was 10 years old, my dad brought home an old typewriter that his workplace was throwing out to replace with more modern equipment.
At the time, I loved writing stories, so being gifted a typewriter was like all my Christmases had come at once!
The keys were quite heavy for my little fingers and I pushed each one carefully but with intent and concentration. The sound of typing and the way the typewriter used to shake each time I sent the drum back to the side gave me an admiration for the level of engineering which had been involved in creating such a sophisticated invention.
I couldn’t get enough of it!
I started copying pages of my books to see how fast I could go, and the typebars often got stuck in a messy pile in the centre as I got a bit too carried away...
I wrote stories about dogs and about places where everyone was a hero; always starting them with: “Once upon a time”. I found that sentence a good way to create momentum to come up with a character or a situation... This is why the keys on this drawing have been replaced to spell “once upon a time”.
To this day, hearing a typewriter makes me feel calm and at peace.