Speed and Accuracy

I'm assuming she didn't have to perform her outstanding typing skills with her feet or in that bathing suit during the contest. I don't know, though. This appears to be her ninth win.

This makes me think of my grandmother. She was a 21 year-old mother of five when she got The Telegram during WWII - no skills, no high school diploma. The Army sent her to business school to learning typing and dictation to support all those fatherless children. I don't imagine it paid for much, but it did throw my war-widow grandmother in the path of a few unmarried professional men.

That's how it was done, really. I seriously doubt Gram's typing skills netted that doctor she soon married. I believe she relied more on youth and an uncanny resemblance to Jane Russell. I also believe that's what the Army had in mind all along.

Post-war, typing skills were many times the means to a happily married end. She'll tell you that herself. She'll also tell you the times called for being gainfully married, so it definitely mattered where a girl did that typing. Gram says she typed like the wind, but in the end it was more important which sweater she wore to the office. A mother of five had to be practical about such things.

If you'd like to test your words-per-minute, try this online typing test. You'll be tested on your laptop rather than your Remington, but at least you don't have to wear a bathing suit.