My mom is quite a typist. My Aunt Jane was a UIL champion typist. But my sister is a world class typist. Mom was telling me that Karen has been beating our cousins that are court reporters on some on-line typing competition.
Mom taught typing at the college, among other things secretarial. That was when it was still ok to call administrative assistants secretaries. I never really understood the problem. Some of the most powerful people in business were/are secretaries. The neatest thing mom taught was shorthand. She still uses it, as she always has, to label Christmas presents (or are they Holiday gifts now?). Somewhere along the way Gregg Shorthand fell out of favor also. Probably the whole secretarial science field was in trouble after Carol Burnett's portrayal of Mr. Tudball's secretary, Mrs. Whiggins.
My Maw-Maw South loved the Carol Burnett Show. For some reason I always equate Carol Burnett to my grandmother's other favorite humorist, Erma Bombeck. Her claim to fame was her Housewife Column. Dang, another word that's now out of favor. Not that there's anything wrong with it. I remember the titles of her books, At Wit's End and The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank. I got most of Carol Burnett's humor, like the "Went with the Wind" sketch with the dress made from the window curtain. I never really understood Erma Bombeck's humor, probably because I never read a book as a kid. If I had to do it over again, I probably still wouldn't.
One of Mother's Erma books was titled "Family, the ties that bind and gag"..a really funny book..I have most of Mom's Bombeck collection and read them from time to time..Now that you are a real adult, you should read her writings..You might get a better insight to Mother..Thanks for posting...Aunt Jane
ReplyDeleteI think that it was shorthand that mom says is a dying art... that and sewing... two things that I just won't miss in my life b/c I never knew how to do either! you've inspired me to start blogging again when kids start back to school.... :)
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