The first thing odd thing Lorena noticed in her current visit to Tempe to see Christian was the very loud clacking that occurred when he typed on his keyboard. He types pretty fast so there was a continuous racket. It turns out he had bought one of the 10-ton (seemingly) boat anchor type old 1980’s IBM Model M keyboards for $30 on eBay. People who follow this kind of thing or lived in that era will know that about which I speak and why it is hilarious.
Betty Blonde #315 – 09/30/2009
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That keyboard was most likely manufactured by Kimball Electronics in Jasper, Indiana. Folks over 40 probably can remember when malls had stores that sold electronic keyboards? Those stores were the beginning of the end for Kimball Organ. (In the halcyon days before electronic keyboards and then gaming, parents bought such things for their children’s development.) In the 1980’s, as the market precipitously declined in electric organs, Kimball went looking for something else to produce on their organ lines. Enter IBM … and Kimball Electronics began its journey into the contract EMS business. The very first post Kimball Organ EMS contract was to produce that IBM keyboard. If the IBM keyboard was made in the US, it was made in Indiana.
Well played, Christian!
Very cool! These things were made like tanks. Maybe if we would have known how well they could make computer keyboards, we never would have quit buying their organs.