Old Dotty

Back when we have an old HP clone PC,  my dad got the family a dot matrix printer.  There was always a box of continuous paper with perforated edges sitting on the floor tucked under the computer desk. My brother and I would raid the box for sketch paper or writing paper or paper to paint on or faux linen to mummify our baby sister with. We’d pull off long strips of the perforations and roll them up or fold them into springy zig zags and left these paper creations all over the house.

Old Dotty sat with paper loaded and ready to go with the click of her power button. I can still hear the music of the motor shuttling the print head back and forth.

‘VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV *click* VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV *click* VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV *click* VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV *click* VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV VOOOOOOOOOOOOO ‘

Old Dotty did her job and did it well. She printed fast and loud, maybe 60 decibels.  Print quality was just fine for our mundane purposes.   I might still have some stories she printed from my school days.   Words look more gray than black and the paper quality wasn’t all that great.   Reading papers printed on these machines must have driven teachers blind.

I printed out my stories, essays and papers back in 1989 and 1990.  When Dad’s job relocated, both beige devices went with my family out west.  I finished my senior year with a typewriter and lots and lots of white out. I missed spell check desperately. My dad once said he might have gone to college if spell check was available to him back in the day.  Both he and I share a genetic disposition for poor handwriting. So poor it was once compared to drunken ink covered ants staggering over the page.

Old Dotty freed me from the nasty old typewriter, carbon pages and white out.  I was so happy to be reunited with her after high school. She was a trusted asset for my college years. Eventually she was sent out to pasture and replaced with a soulless and much quieter printer. At least she didn’t meet the same fate as the printer from Office Space.