If your letters home or homemade recipe cards seem to have lost their spark, it’s maybe not you, but your device that’s lacking inspiration. A growing number of people are looking to the past to rediscover their creativity, and for them, Rolla’s Clickety Clack Typewriters is the pitstop allowing them to race forward. Owners Shane and Amanda Bryne say the distraction-free and sensory experience of using a typewriter is a rousing alternative to computer screens and auto-generated text. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, July 19, they’re inviting the public to try using a typewriter during a “type-in” event they’re hosting at the Salem Public Library, and will also be giving one away during a raffle.
“We have kids all the time coming in and they love it,” says Amanda Bryne. “They sit down, and they'll just start typing and their parents are like, ‘Oh my gosh, we've been here an hour, and the kids haven't looked at a phone screen, they haven't asked a question, they haven't asked for food.’ Nothing, because they've been engrossed in their minds and in their imaginations, and it's such a beautiful thing.”
Clickety Clack Typewriters brought its typewriter collection to the Old Courthouse in Rolla last year. Its location serves as a museum, showroom for buyers, and workshop for those needing typewriter repairs.
“During a road trip across country during the pandemic for the Navy, I stopped at a place in Baton Rouge and picked up a typewriter because Amanda got into journaling,” says Shane Bryne. “That was 2019, and here we are in 2025, and we're almost cresting 900 typewriters.”
Since opening, business at Clickety Clack Typewriters has boomed in the same vein that’s once again made vinyl records and traditional flip phones best sellers. Driving the movement is the goal to promote human-generated art, with typos and all, over AI-generated scrawls.
“A computer is two-dimensional, and then it goes into a cloud and you don’t have anything at the end, but when you type with the typewriter, it's a three-dimensional, total-body experience,” says Amanda. “All the senses are incorporated. There’s sight, smell, sounds, touch - all of it is there. There’s also an emotional element. If somebody sits down to type something for you, a letter or whatever it is, you have all the mistakes, you have all the intentions, all the emotions behind it; whereas, with an email, there's autocorrect and it just it comes across as two dimensional.”
During the July 19 type-in in Salem, Clickety Clack Typewriters will have several typewriters ready for people of all ages to make a bookmark or put some lines on a page. The event came together serendipitously when Clickety Clack Typewriters came to the rescue when one of the Salem Public Library’s typewriters needed repairs.
“There's no cost to participate,” says Isabella Knaack, an assistant librarian at the Salem Public Library. “You're more than welcome to stop by, there's going to be a lot of typewriters, and you can bring your own typewriter. Maybe you're from a generation that used typewriters, and you want to go with a group of friends and just relive some of the moments that you enjoyed growing up. I've heard parents talk about bringing their kids because it'll be a good experience for them to learn and interact with these devices. Everyone's welcome.”
Knaack says the type-in is just one of several programming events being hosted this summer at Salem Public Library.
“If you're just stopping by for the typewriter event, you might stop by upstairs as well and see what's going on up there,” Knaack says. “We have multiple different kids’ programs, and we have an adult program that's going to be like paint party and stuff. It's just a fun time, there's no cost and you don’t need a library card. It's just a way to encourage people to read throughout the summer.”
Clickety Clack Typewriters is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays as well as 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays in the Old Courthouse, located at 305 West Third Street in Rolla. Shane and Amanda say the public is welcome to see their typewriters and try one out if they’re interested in buying one.
“Some of these machines are over 100 years old,” says Amanda Bryne. “They still work, they're still fixable, while your iPhone is going to be obsolete in a couple of years, and they're going to make sure you get a new one. Whereas, we can usually find the parts, and with 3-D printing and some other things that is going on, we may be able to even manufacture parts in the future for things that we don't we can't have anymore.”
Amanda concludes, “When somebody does want to buy one what we do is we invite them in and we have them try a few basic machines. With our experience, we can help them find what is the best fit. It’s like a boutique, we just keep bringing them out and we narrow it down until they really have the right fit because we want that machine to go home and be used.” Visit www.clicketyclacktypewriters.com for more information.
