Slice of Life story challenge, March 2019
Day 13 -- "Clickety Clackety"
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When I was a little girl, my mother would sometimes type on her manual typewriter in the evening, practicing her keystrokes and trying to improve her speed. I remember being in awe as I watched her fingers flying over the keys. Clickety clackety clickety clack, DING, swoosh. Clickety clackety clickety clack, DING, swoosh. Clickety clackety clickety clack, DING, swoosh. Again and again and again, I heard those same sounds until "Zzzzip!" Mom snatched the piece of paper out of the typewriter and quickly rolled another one in.
I looked at the paper she had discarded: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." That same sentence was repeated over and over and over again, all down the length of the page.
I was puzzled. Our dog could be lazy at times, but I didn't know anything about a brown fox being anywhere near where we lived. Why was mom typing about a brown fox and a lazy dog? And why was she typing it over and over? What was the point of it all?
That was the night I learned about that one special sentence and how it was used by many people to practice their typing. As Mom explained it to me, I found it fascinating that one silly sentence could be so important to so many people because it contained every letter of the alphabet. How funny. How intriguing.
Words still intrigue me to this day.
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JudyK :-) March 13, 2019
Your use of onomatopoeia drew me into your Slice. Great hook!
ReplyDeleteI just love the sounds you've strung together, they feel like they could be sounds of a picture book, beloved by children. I think it's really cool that this memory is so vivid to you, and shows a lot about your mom's dedication!
ReplyDeleteLoved the sounds of this post. The ding-swoosh is so evocative. It's interesting how random memories stay stuck in our heads.
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