In high school (back in the 1960s), my mother insisted I take typing so I'd "have something to fall back on" and my father insisted I take Home Ec because when they were first married, my mother had no idea how to cook or keep house. Her mother had not let her do any housework, wanting "something better" for her. I learned how to sew and took over most of the housework by the time I was 14 (my mother had an outside job ... where she refused to learn how to run their switchboard because she wasn't a receptionist) but I wasn't allowed to cook. I learned cooking from cookbooks ... my basic was the Settlement Cook Book (which I still have and call my "everything you need to know about chicken Julia Child won't tell you" book).

My mom wanted to be on the college-prep track in school, and the school wouldn't let her, because she was the youngest of six kids of a divorced mother. They made her take the secretarial course instead.

This bit me in the ass in a few ways, 30 years later. She let me take typing, but she wouldn't sign off on me taking cooking, sewing, home ec, or, for some reason, technical drawing.

Cindy, a while back I came across an abandoned adding machine with receipt at work and I was SO EXCITED but it turned to not actually print. It was a sad day when I understood that no amount of tinkering on my part would fix it.

-t, I don't suppose it needed a ribbon?

This was a while ago, but I think I replaced the ribbon. I replaced everything that was replaceable, basically, to no avail. In any case, it's gone now.

2nd shot complete.

No typing in my highschool, but mother tried to get me to self teach at home. It failed. I type using mostly two fingers on each hand and make lots of mistakes if I do not look at the keyboard.

I had a whole long, ranty post about jobs and respect, but it sounded all preachy and shit, so... cosigned on people and jobs (paid or unpaid) deserve respect. Maybe just people deserve respect covers it. I mean, until they blow it.

Now I need to start breaking down the packing boxes to get them into the recycle bin to go out tonight, which is probably why I was procastiranting in the first place.

askye, that really is a lot. Best of luck getting everything taken care of.

I never took typing in school because it was an elective and I didn't have the space for it. I was 4 years Drama, and 2 of Spanish then 2 of Adv Choir (for 2 elective slots per year). I tried on my own as an adult (I found an online typing course and somehow got my job at the time to pay for it), but it turns out that with the nerve damage in my right shoulder, I have a really difficult time lining my hands up correctly, so it never really worked for me. I type pretty quick one handed (my right is shift key, but not much else), but I'll never truly touch-type because the one hand has to cover the whole width of the keys. And I was pretty quick with the 10-key, but since I do that left handed as well, it was never ideal in a customer-facing job (bank teller, cashier at K-Mart) because I would always have to turn my body so far away to reach the keys on the right side with my left hand.

Like Vortex, I gave up my acting dreams with the consideration of how few actors make it, plus the acknowledgement that I have waaay too thin of a skin to take the abuse for my physical appearance that would come with the territory.

Now I need to start breaking down the packing boxes to get them into the recycle bin to go out tonight, which is probably why I was procastiranting in the first place.

Have you joined your local Buy Nothing group on FB? I swear there are people asking for boxes nearly every week on mine.

Huh, no I haven't. Let me go do that. That's a great idea.

I'm pretty sure typing was a required course at my high school (in the early-mid 80s) for which I'm deeply grateful. We used to have the typewriter my grandmother got when she was in secretarial school that had unmarked keys. I'm not sure where that ended up, though.

JenP, Epic's right; you might also see if FB has a specific local group just for boxes - there's one here, and I found all the boxes and packing material I needed for my last move on it, then got rid of all of it the same way. I'll use it again when we move next year.