Remembering The Guy Who Brings Typewriters

 Polly Esther and Pierson with Typewriter 2019

The picture above will be familiar to you if you follow our social media or if you read this post from our 2019 Preptober Workshop. On our social media the title "Polly Esther and Pierson join the Typewriter Brigade!" was added to the picture, because they posed with the portable typewriter that Peter Baker brought to the event. (The Typewriter Brigade is a loose title given to those writers who use a typewriter to write some or all of their NaNoWriMo projects each year.) While this post that shared the results of our regional mascot name voting does not state it, Peter's suggestion was one of the two names that were part of the tie, and in that way, he will always be with us. This post is my clumsy attempt at remembering the Sockmonkey Writer who was known to many as 'the guy who brings typewriters'.

 

 FB Group Post About Guy Bringing Typewriters

It was actually a Facebook birthday alert that led to my discovery that Peter Baker had passed away. I followed the notification to leave my birthday greetings but then wondered why I hadn't gotten a sticker request from him, since he had been active in the group for years. It was then that I found a lovely post on his timeline written by his sister, which let me know that he had passed away on July 15th, 2021. I shared the sad news with the Facebook group, but wanted to create a more accessible memorial and set about looking through group posts and photos so I could write this post. The picture above is from a conversation in 2015/16 where one of our members mentioned buying a new-to-them typewriter and was asking about bringing them to write-ins, but with all names other than Peter's redacted.

The above post is from our social media during NaNoWriMo 2020, where Flat Polly Esther and Pierson joined the Typewriter Brigade by mail. It includes a picture of Polly Esther and Pierson with one of Peter's portable typewriters at our 2019 Preptober event, the first time our mascots were honorary members of the Brigade. It was always fun to have Peter and one of his typewriters show up to a November event, because he had so many and they were all different. Prior to Covid stopping our in-person gatherings, I had been chatting with him about the possibility of having a typewriter write-in where he would bring a handful of typewriters he was okay with other people typing on and any writers who were interested could try one out. I was really looking forward to the chance to try, even though I'm sure I type much slower on a typewriter than I do on the computer.

Edited Post from 2013 King's Books Write-in

Peter posted the picture above in our Sockmonkey Facebook group during a write-in that was held at King's Books in Tacoma. This was before I became Municipal Liaison and before I actually got to know Peter by name, but my open purple folder is on the table between us and I STILL use that same laptop. It was interesting seeing Peter set up first the typewriter and then a stack of blank paper as he prepared to write during the event. I remember being amazed that there was a group of writers who not only attempted NaNoWriMo, but that they attempted it on typewriters. I also remember that King's Books had a few shop cats that would visit the table or wander among the book stacks and allow themselves to be petted while we were there. Sockmonkey Writers who only knew Peter from his posts inside the group may not know this (unless you attended some of our virtual write-ins, where we saw a few of them) but Peter and his wife had taken in several stray cats from their neighborhood, including one we met during a virtual write-in who they brought inside from its previous home under their front porch steps. 

The above is the graphic posted in our social areas to let people know about this post. It has a picture of Peter along with a few of the other Sockmonkey Writers who attended our TGIO and Blind Book Exchange in 2019.

Peter, wherever you are, I hope you are enjoying bike rides and typewriters with keys that don't stick while you type. You and your typewriters will be missed. Rest in peace.