Jim Riegert, now in his 70s, remembers what it used to be like. "Back then, typewriters were pretty big. Typewriters and adding machines," he says, referring to desktop calculators. "It got really difficult in the typewriter business about 25 years ago," he says. "The internet was coming on and killing us, too." He runs Typewriters.com and, despite a decline in sales in recent decades, he still shifts four or five electric IBM typewriters every week.

Bryan Kravitz, who specialized in IBM Selectric repairs. Rhoda wanted to learn, too. Kravitz was happy to teach him."I just put my head down, and learned how to do it," Rhoda said, and he partnered with Kravitz to open Philly Typewriter in 2017.