This is a story I’m sure Claire would remember very well — we talked about it a few times over the years.
When we were in Manila, Claire served as the finance officer for our office. Shortly after we had arrived, she requested a new typewriter — the one in her office looked like it was about fifty years old. Apparently whoever had the job before Claire didn’t type, because it looked like it had been doing nothing but gathering dust for a while.
The request for the new typewriter was made through the embassy, as was the common practice. For some reason the embassy decided to procure a typewriter locally, rather than via headquarters in Washington. They purchased a brand new typewriter locally — it looked like the IBM Selectrics that most everyone used back then, but it was not made in the US, or by IBM. I think it may have been made in France, but I’m not sure.
But anyway, Claire was happy — for about a day. The new typewriter just didn’t seem to work… ½ spaces between letters, letters overlapping each other, and all sorts of problems. She complained and the boss told her to call a repairman. That proved to be easier said than done — it seems that no one was able to locate a typewriter repairman in all of the Philippines. Finally, I asked one of the Filipinos that worked in the warehouse to find a repairman. He said he knew someone and shortly, the typewriter repairman showed up. But — there was a small issue. The repairman didn’t speak any English and no one in the office knew more than a few words of Tagalog. So I called our guy from the warehouse, who acted as an interpreter. The repairman asked what the problem was and the ‘interpreter” explained it. He then asked Claire to show him what was happening. Claire sat down and started typing — after a couple of minutes, the repairman started yelling, and waving his arms and Claire Stopped typing. Our guy from the warehouse conferred with the repairman and then started laughing. The repairman had said that Claire was typing much too fast — the typewriter’s ball with the letters — couldn’t turn that fast. She just needed to slow down. Claire, by now none too happy, asked how “slow” should she type? The repairman demonstrated, and according to Claire, his typing would be considered “hunt and peck” at best.
When we told that story, Claire always said it was the first, and probably only, time she had ever been told to work slower.
— 30 —