Yokels, Vagabonds, and Saint Augustine

Typewritten Reflections on Walking

This old hunk of steel has a sticker on the back of it — MADE IN YUGOSLAVIA. And it’s every bit as tough of a typewriter as you might expect those stern old Soviets could make; it withstood being chucked into my rucksack and tossed out onto roadsides, and being hurtled along the streets of the French Quarter of New Orleans on rusty old bikes rattling over the cobblestone. Given the history of old Yugoslavia perhaps this was not this machine’s first bout of being tossed around in a hurry.

I purchased it in the winter of 2015, when I was squatting in the ruins of a hurricane-ravaged shotgun shack in the Eighth Ward of New Orleans, and I used it to make a meagre living as a street poet. People would pay me a couple dollars on Frenchman Street to write them poems, love notes, apologies, odes, and all manner of bawdy and outlandish prose such as drunk tourists are capable of imagining on a boozy Louisiana vacation. Now, after a lengthy period of storage, this old typewriter makes its second debut as the tool of my trade — it again assists me in my bardic vocation, this time digitally. I’ve lately been contemplating ways to become more and more ‘offline’ while still making a modest living as a writer online, and cancelling my internet service in favor of scanning typewritten pages in at the local library seems like an attractive possibility.

As the spring has begun to creep through the remnants of a halfhearted winter season, I thought to wander into the yard with my old typewriter as a man might rendezvous with an old friend. I pecked this four-page essay out in a few hours on a sunny day, and then walked nine miles round trip to the library, where I scanned it to email. Perhaps I’ll make a habit of it if you, my readers, find it to your tastes — I apologize in advance if it is difficult to read the text on your smartphones or email apps, and doubly apologize for the typos. This is an experiment, and for now viewing on a desktop may be the best way to read it. Without further ado, here’s the essay:

Thanks for reading! Please comment if you enjoyed reading this typewritten post, as I would love to do more in the future. I am also lately considering adding handwritten work, compiled photos, collages, and various scannable artifacts I find along the road and in the woods. Take care — and if the weather’s getting nice wherever you’re at this week, I hope you’ll get a good walk in.