Technology no match for the classics
Kensington business dedicated to devotees of the typewriter
Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2006
by Veleka Burrell
Staff Writer
Click here to enlarge this photo
Laurie DeWitt⁄The Gazette
Typewriter repairman Frank Cherian, 53, poses with the very first typewriter model from the L.C. Smith & Bros. Company, which later became Smith Corona. Cherian, who works at Kensington Office Machines and has been repairing typewriters for more than 30 years, said the machines would not likely become obsolete since they are so easy to use and there is still a demand for them.
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For a brand that once helped dominate the word processing landscape, the Smith Corona Web site is pretty modest.There’s no mention of the typewriter company’s 115-year old legacy — a feat for any technology-based company — on its home page. And a picture with the words, ‘‘It’s an American Icon” in the ‘‘About Smith Corona” section of the Web site seems like an afterthought given the words — in small, simple type — are shown inside an animated thought balloon.
But the fact is companies like Smith Corona, IBM, Swintec and Brother were once the typewriting titans of their day.
And though that day might have come and gone for most, Kensington businessman Jimmy Fasusi wants people to know typewriters still have a following.
‘‘We have customers who ask us not to go out of business because they don’t want to use computers,” said Fasusi, owner of Kensington Office Machines — an office supply and repair store on Plyers Mill Road that sells typewriters, computers, fax machines and other communication gadgets. ‘‘There are customers 60 and upwards and the thing is, they love their machines and they don’t want to give it up.”
Fasusi estimates about 70 percent of his profits come from selling or repairing typewriters.
Most of his clients, Fasusi acknowledged, are older and appreciate the typewriter’s simplicity, and have no desire to learn about computers.
People like 82-year-old Chevy Chase resident Joan Gidding.
‘‘I used the [computer] and I spent hours looking at the beastly thing — the mouse and everything,” said Gidding, who is originally from England. ‘‘And I thought, I can’t deal with that rubbish. When the printer was installed, there was no room for my makeup.”
Gidding even typed her 75-page Master’s degree thesis on an Underwood typewriter. That was in 1984, but Gidding’s loyalty to the machines in the face of newer technology is undiminished.
‘‘Everybody’s trying to get me into the 20th century, never mind the 21st century,” Gidding said. ‘‘My niece — she sent me a word processor. I have no idea what to do with the [darn] thing. Finally my husband said, ‘This is not going to work. You are not electronically minded.’”
For people like Gidding, Fasusi’s store is a typewriting refuge, a place they can go to get their nearly antiquated machines repaired.
The store is not, however, a haven for the younger set.
In the mid-1980s, Montgomery County Public Schools phased out typing classes, about the time computers were coming into classrooms, according to Shelly Johnson, MCPS director of career and technology.
So younger generations that might have previously taken typing classes in schools are probably not even familiar with typewriters.
‘‘The way most of the school systems work…is the students take keyboarding,” Shelly said. ‘‘It’s embedded in our computer classes. It’s something they have to learn as part of the course.”
The MCPS computer classes — offered to middle and high school students — are optional unless students are on the technology track, Shelly said.
Fasusi knows he’s not likely to get an influx of younger customers any time soon. But, he said, he doesn’t need to.
‘‘We have a contract with [National Institutes of Health]. The Washington, D.C., superior court, we’ve been with them for five years. They still use typewriters to type up [documents].
‘‘We sell to inmates because inmates are not allowed to use computers. We even got a celebrity that came over from Frederick,” said Fasusi, refusing to reveal the celebrity’s name. ‘‘They were shooting a movie reenactment and needed some typewriters.”
Which is just fine with 30-year typewriter repairman, Frank Cherian, because a demand for the machines means he still gets to do the work he loves.
‘‘The way I got interested is I took a typing class many years ago in high school,” said Cherian, who has worked at Kensington Office Machines for about 10 years. ‘‘It was so interesting to see the guys, how they put the machines together. All those screws, they had a place. It was a miracle the thing worked.”
Demand to buy the machines or have them repaired also means typewriters still have a place in today’s technological society, Cherian said.
‘‘I don’t think the typewriter will ever be obsolete,” he said. ‘‘I think they’ll always be around. You don’t have to put anything to memory. It’s a very simple process.”
