Another one bites the dust....

[captainsblog]

I may be the last person alive who still uses an adding machine.

I'm odd in the sense (well, more than one sense) that I actually learned to use a calculator before ever laying hands on one. And they have a manual mathematics all their own; you don't subtract 5 minus 2, but rather enter 5+ and 2- and then hit the diamond or the star.

In college, I had a job that involved adding up hundreds of checks and credit card vouchers from the on-campus business I worked at, and I got good and fast at using the machine. I've always had one on my desk since I've been in practice; it's my go-to scratchpad to take down a quick phone number, or to run out some calculations faster than spreadsheeting them or risking the misteeks of pencil and paper.

At this moment, my roll of tape is starting to go pink- and I've searched through two office supply stashes, one in each of my offices, and can't find a single one of them.

Last time I ran out, the local office manager showed me where a couple of them were in the cabinet. "You know," she said, "you and I are the only ones who still use these."  Now, apparently, not even she- at least not much.

I could, I presume, get some at an office supply store- or I could ask her to.  No fools, they; they come in 24-packs now. I will be pushing up daisies before I ever get into the teens of such a package.

So. Do I reinvent myself and resort to the more Excel-ent way of keeping track of things? Maybe it's time; the damn thing is low on ink, as well, and those also come in multi-packs.  Also, it's only a matter of time before I pour some form of liquid all over my desk and take this one out the way I've taken out the previous two.

Yet I hesitate to just throw it out. I'd hate to die and find out that one of the questions on the entrance exam is what that "F 6 3 2 1 0 A" key is actually for when, all these years, I've never figured it out.

Comments

[thediva-laments.livejournal.com]

Two of my jobs use these, one without the tape, one with. As a result I've had to learn more or less how to use them. I still don't know what those little buttons mean either, and I certainly prefer a calculator, but I understand your reluctance to give them up when keeping track of things like lists of financial transactions.

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

I say don't let this skill fall into disuse-- I don't think you will find anything as fast as what you're doing now. There _may_ be computer equivalents out there but your machine is probably still faster, and I'm pretty sure in banking and accounting a lot of people still do it because it's so darned fast.

[sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com]

Amazon sells adding machine tape.

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

Hellz, you can buy a manual typewriter (http://www.amazon.com/Adler-Royal-Scrittore-Manual-Typewriter/dp/B0077SN67W/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1367342435&sr=1-2&keywords=manual+typewriter) from Amazon.

That just seems cruel.

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

Buy the multi-packs and sell the extras to other people who don't want to buy 24 rolls of adding machine tape?

When I last had my typewriter reconditioned, they had to hand-wind the ribbon onto the reels; even the typewriter repair place couldn't find new ribbons. *sigh*

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

Knowing the way things go in this nanny state of ours, by the time I went to sell them they will probably have banned the re-sale of "loosies."

[bill_sheehan.livejournal.com]

I haven't touched a ten-key adding machine in almost 30 years, but I remember it well from my days at a large metropolitan insurance company. There was something fun about the chunking noise it made, to say nothing of the deep sense of satisfaction when the sums just came out right.