Elusive Headpin - Part II

My doubles partner that year (and in many years to come) was Ron. Ron and I had a very strange relationship throughout high school. The relationship seemingly was built on a constant and heated competition. It didn’t matter whether it was test scores, keyboarding speed drills or the 50 yard dash in Phys Ed but, we always seemed to be comparing notes and (I’m not bragging here) I won out in the lion’s share of cases.

What was strange about this relationship was that I don’t believe I pursued the competitive aspect of our relationship. It was mildly amusing to me that Ron had such a keen interest in this “friendly competition”.

We both found ourselves enrolled in a “typing class” (that’s what they called it in those days… I’m sure now, a similar class would be called “keyboarding”). It was during that class that the friendship and the competition became the most intense. The class was equipped with a recent vintage of IBM electric typewriters and a small contingent of manual typewriters. It was our instructor’s intent to cycle some of us through the use of both varieties of typewriters because he felt that would prepare us better for whatever we encountered in the workplace. In hindsight, this proved ridiculous because within two years, the manual typewriter was all but, extinct and any of us that entered the workplace within the next five years were going to encounter either electric word processors (in an office environment) or better yet, computers.

Anyway, the two of us embraced the speed drills portion of the class. I quickly became the fastest typist within that group of students. Ron was either placing second or third. At the end of the first quarter, I was moved off the electric typewriter onto one of the four manual typewriters in the room. My speed greatly decreased as the manual typewriters not only required a stronger hand but, also there was a pronounced gap between the keys that required the typist to become much more accurate in their keystrokes to prevent pushing your fingers between the keys slowing down progress and creating more mistakes.

It was during this second quarter of that academic year that Ron’s speed surpassed mine as Ron was left on the better, faster electric breed of typewriter while I toiled away with the manual typewriter. I still placed among the fastest and more accurate but, I had to definitely adapt to this different keyboard and technology.

Thankfully, in the third quarter, the room rotated again and I was moved back to the electric typewriter while poor Ron was now encumbered with dealing with the lesser, older manual. During that quarter, I again became, easily, the fastest typist in the group. Ron’s speed was hindered by the change and he began to see why my complaints with the manual typewriters (which he brushed off when we discussed the competition outside of class) were valid. I continued to downplay the competition while, inwardly, being somewhat amused by the results.

Like any great race though, the fourth quarter was interesting. We had both progressed well during the year and both positions side by side in the room dealing with similar equipment (the electric breed of typewriter). Our “friendly competition” during the class actually garnered notice from some of the other students as well as the instructor. We all attempted to downplay it but, it was still a force in that class. I continued (with only a few exceptions) to stay 2 to 5 words per minute faster than my friend. This infuriated him greatly and we spoke of little else during the later portion of our sophomore year in high school.

Fortunately, once that school year ended, like most good friends, that competition was over and forgotten (sort of) and we basically would find other ways to fuel that competitive fire.