I confess. I am a two space typist. In my defense, though, I did learn to type on a manual typewriter. That was the standard procedure. I've tried using only one space between sentences, but with 30 years of experience the other way, it just doesn't work for me. A double space is automatic.
Me, too, Jackie. And now you're bringing back memories of my big, old, shuddering IBM Selectric. I thought the pop-out ribbon cartridge for corrections was SO state-of-the-art. Not these days, though!
And I thought that little roll of correcting tape you could insert between the paper and type bar was a huge advance over messy correcting fluid (which I swear gave me a buzz when used excessively in a poorly ventilated room).
Talk about memories, Martha ... I got onboard the "computer revolution" early. Maybe 84 or 85. Some business donated an IBM AT to our school when they upgraded to the XT. Nobody at the school really knew really knew (or wanted to learn) how to use it. I taught science and figured I should. So the principal let me take it home to play around with. Figured out the basics in a couple weeks.
Then came my great moment of discovery. At a local office supply store they had a rack of 5.5" floppy discs (remember those?) and I found one with an early word processing program called New York Edit. It went way beyond the mono-spaced Courier text you were forced to use in *.txt files, providing rudimentary formatting capabilities and a few extra fonts. As I started using it for writing tests and reports, and got used to the almost magical process of cutting and pasting, typing over errors to correct them, and inserting bold, italic, and underlined text, I realized this software was going to change the way I write. And it did.
I sold my electric typewriter while it still had some value on the used market and never looked back. Who could imagine living with anything but a word processor these days? And how many kids these days have even seen a typewriter?
How many kids have seen a typewriter, Heimhenge? I'd guess, not many. My daughter is in high school and is a fabulous touch-typist. All the letters are worn off her keyboard but it makes no difference to her. I asked her about the double space thing. No, in elementary school keyboarding, they were taught just a single space after the period. She did say some of her middle school teachers requested students to use the double space when writing papers. Some even went so far as to take off points if papers had only the single space! Now she's determined to dig up a typewriter, so she can try her typing skills out on that.
Shouldn't be too hard to find. Every time I'm in either Staples or OfficeMax (there aren't any Office Depot stores around here any more), there are always two different typewriters on open display. In the old days they would have each had a sheet of paper in them for demonstration purposes, but that little detail seems to have fallen by the wayside.
I've asked the salespeople on a number of occasions, and nobody can remember ever actually selling one. I've heard it suggested that they're still used in offices that use a lot of pre-printed forms with carefully-aligned spaces to type in the information.