It’s funny how technological innovations eventually become commonplace and then forgotten. My six-year-old was doing his homework last night and had to write the first and last letters of things that were pictured on his worksheet. When he got to a typewriter he asked me what it was.
Isn’t that funny? He asked me what it was and when I looked at it, it was clearly a picture of a typewriter.
And then I found myself EXPLAINING to him how a typewriter works, with the keys hitting the ribbon, etc. My ten-year-old got into it then, asking if each letter hit at the same place, so I explained how the roller moves each time you hit a key.
Who’d have thought it?
How many libraries out there still have a typewriter somewhere, available for public use? We’ve still got one on the basement level, but I don’t think it gets used much.
It won’t be long before we’re getting students as freshmen in college who’ve never seen a typewriter before. This year’s freshmen were generally born in 1989! MAN!! I was a senior in college that year! Where’s the time gone? 
Back at my parents’ house, I have a German manual typewriter, and I was born less than a decade before those freshmen you mentioned. I’ve rarely used the typewriter, because, while it’s nice to have the umlauts right there, I’ve always hated having to pound on the keys. Besides, I’m not sure anyone even sells replacements for the ribbons anymore.
The library I used to work at has a typewriter. It’s available for public use upon request, but I don’t think anyone has ever asked to use it. The only person who ever uses it, as far as I know, is the woman who prepares the book for the bindery.