You’d be hard-pressed to find a man more affable than Robert Green, the proprietor of Amherst Typewriter & Computer. And if using a typewriter is truly an aesthetic experience, then walking into Green’s shop is an experience akin to winning the asethetic lottery. For thirty years he has operated out of the same small storefront adjacent to the biggest intersection in Amherst, Massachusetts, repairing and restoring typewriters of all stripes (and ribbons.)
And while he’s quick to admit that there’s not an abundance of income in his profession, he’s also quick to explain the pleasures of his work: “There’s a sense of hearing, and of touch. People come in and I have them try one out, and soon they find a rhythm, clack clack clackety clack–ding. And then the same again, in the next line. I could say something to them then, and they wouldn’t hear me–they’re in the rhythm–hearing it, feeling it. The typewriter becomes an extension of them. Sometimes they come in, try one out, and ask where the delete button is. But some get it.”
Unlike computer technology–Green’s other specialty–the typewriter sprang from different proprietary technologies. The goal is the same for each machine: to get the typeface on the page. In a shop full of Olivers, Underwoods, Royals, Remingtons, and Smith-Corona’s, the repairs are specific to each machine’s independent mechanisms–and Green learned each by following the movement from key strike to letter on the page and systematically asking “What’s causing this?”
He’s worked on machines for James Tate and James Baldwin, to name a few (“I don’t really care who you are, I care if you’re a nice person,” he says) and claims that those who are most interested in machines now are either writers, or artists.
And, apparently, kids. Green puts six machines out each day for people to try out. Generations of Amherst kids have grown up stopping by and typing messages to each other. “I’ve only had to stop one child from using his foot,” Green explains. “Usually, they are just interested in what the typewriter is, and how it works.”
Green does mail order work, and is happy to have visitors. If ever you are in Amherst, Mass–you must stop by! He may be reached via e-mail at amtype@verizon.net.