I am a terrible hoarder of books and came across a book today entitled GREGG TYPING from the late Sixties. It is what you might call a 'text book' full of exercises for pupils learning to touch type and I could hardly believe my eyes. It seems like something from the dark ages now, yet this was the era in which Secrets in Appley Green is set.
In the example shown below, no doubt written by a man for his female secretary (just saying) the instructions are 'Using quarto paper and inserting a suitable date, type the following letter ready for signature. Take one carbon copy. Address a slip of paper, commercial envelope size, as the envelope. Production target - 25 minutes.'
There are terms here that would be unfamiliar to many younger people. Even 'envelope' is something now rarely used what with emails and so on. 'Carbon copy' is the origin of 'cc' when you copy someone into an email, of course. The term 'bcc' now used would make no sense at all in those days as taking a carbon copy involved placing an extra sheet of paper in the typewriter and sandwiched between the two sheets of paper would be a sheet of thin, waxy, inky carbon paper.
If you made so much as a single mistake - just one letter - not only would the top sheet of paper have to be corrected with white liquid commonly known as Tipp-Ex, but also the second sheet of paper would have to be changed. It was such a faff that it taught us to avoid making errors! The concentration was intense.
So next time you delete so much as a letter, never mind an entire paragraph or page, think of this and be very grateful. No such thing as photocopiers or mobile cameras so you could make a copy in seconds. Oh no, you just had to start all over again. And some women or girls, never a boy or man I would say, would have the unenviable job as Copy Typist! Imagine that.
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