"The bike community is made up of little groupings of people," said McGettigan, who owns Trophy Bikes in University City and the Trophy Bike Garage in Northern Liberties. "The same exists for people who love typewriters. This is to find out who they are."
The Type-In will give attendees a place to type letters on a bar top - McGettigan is providing the stationary - trade typewriters and participate in a typing challenge to see who can type a Paul Oster passage the fastest.
"Depending on how many people we have, we might even have a couple of heats," McGettigan said. "Maybe we'll use something crazy like a Jay-Z lyric."
The prize? An Olympia SM9.
Marshall Davis, a typewriter technician, also will appear at the event to instruct owners how to "keep a manual typewriter happy."
Upkeep, along with finding a manual typewriter, isn't that hard when compared with caring for a computer, McGettigan said.
"I had an eMac a few years ago, but now you can't run any of the software," McGettigan said. "A person with a 10-year-old computer has a machine that is obsolete. A 40-year-old typewriter just needs some paper and ribbon."
Donna Brady of Brady & Kowalski - a Brooklyn, N.Y., business that repairs, restores and sells manual typewriters - said taking care of a manual typewriter is as simple as keeping it clean and putting it to good use.
"To ensure my collection gets used I have a machine for every purpose in my household," Brady said. "One typewriter for my daily notes, one for my nightly journal entry, one for checks, envelopes and business correspondence, one for creative writing and personal correspondence and one for visitors to use as they wish."
