“I want a typewriter…”

 I was wearing my “You’re my Type” canvas bag from Louise Marler, my friend the typewriter artist.

I was crawling around Saks Fifth Avenue in a desperate attempt to find a few Christmas gifts.

The sales people notice everything. I think they’re trained to say “I like your…”, no matter what you’re wearing.

A young Asian saleswoman in the Juniors Section surprised me.  She looked about 20.

“I like your… bag,” she ventured.

My bag?  I looked down. I had a fancy purse my husband had given me but she didn’t seem to mean that one… She meant the typewriter bag!

“My friend’s a typewriter artist,” I blurted.  “Louise Marler, in Santa Monica.”

“I want one,” she said.

“A …?”  I wasn’t following.  The bag?

“A typewriter,” she finished.

I was surprised.  Was this a joke?  A far-out attempt to get me to buy?  Or was she for real?

“You do?” I asked, turning from the Joie.  “Why?”

“My parents had one, not the super-old kind, but old enough it had cool letters… and I want to see that real ink again.”

Now she had me.  I told her about my blog.  About Ermanno’s shop, Star Office Machines on Santa Monica Blvd.  About “type-casting”, where typing is put online.

“Do you know where it is?” I asked.  “I could help you get it repaired.”

She didn’t know, but she would ask.

Then my personal shopper Jamie S. came back from the jeans department, navy-blue J. Brand in hand.

“We’re ready,” she smiled, whisking me along.  I didn’t know her name and we had to get going.  (Etiquette demands that if you’re with one sales person, you can’t really “make friends” with another one and I didn’t want to go too far and push my luck.)

“Check out my blog,” I called over my shoulder, as my typewriter tote swung along under my shoulder.  If I’d been quicker, I would have given her mine.

http://www.lamarler.com/shop/products/category/bags/