0 Typewriter Galleries » Hunter: Trudy Rogers
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This is my Dad (Pop). Our father was born in 1933 in Edmonton Alberta, Canada. He began fixing typewriters for the Parliament when he was about 16. He then met my mother who also worked there in another department. In 1952 They were married. My father always felt he needed to live in the states. In 1956 with 3 kids, 3 and under he made that dream happen. They moved to Spokane Washington where his wife Shirley had some sisters that had already made the move to the states.
He worked for a typewriter business in the late 50's. He then opened Riverside Office Machines with some Canadaian friends. In 1961 he opened his own business by the name of "Abacus Office Machines" Our mother was very much his supporter. Totally they had 5 children. Youngest being me. My brother and I have our Dual citizenship with Canada. We spent much time there with our Canadian family.
Late 70's/early 80's 4 of us kids joined the ranks. Now mind you we were already helping out, because that is what you do. In 1992 our folks retired and 3 of us kids continued the operation adding the name "Abacus Computer Center". We kept the business open until 1918 because we were all getting older and found we could do some of the business from our homes. During all these years we collected many typewriters. Some we had in display cases, others in storage at the business. Then they were all moved to my dad's home when we retired. Tried to talk him into letting us service and clean all of them before we shut down. In his mind he truly thought he would have the chance. Over time as he became older and his eye sight not well we found that there wasn't any chance he could do it. And, we knew it would be too emotional for him to have us kids to do it. So, they were safe in his home.

Behind every great man is a women. Our mother was just as amazing. My mother backed all his adventures as she did his, not to mention all us kids. Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts. Anything we neeeded. We couldn't ask for anything better.

Pop passed September of 2025. Sadly, none of us kids have the space for 450+ typewriters. So, we have all taken a few and my brother and I are fixing up the others and selling them on Ebay.

We are so grateful that Brian is listing all our photos and sharing our story.

Sunshine N laughter to you all. Love the Meakin Family.