Ouscalossa means “Last of the Beautiful” the Creek Princess the town of Oskaloosa was named after. This is the Thursday July 25th overnight stop for the bicycle ride across Iowa. One gets to learn a great deal about the state of Iowa when you take part in the bicycle ride. One of the added benefits.
As a stand alone the Reliance Premier is a solid machine. If you have one just put some time between it and a classic like a Royal 10. The Reliance is that second car… the one you go to the store in and the daily commute to work car. The car gets you where you want to go… the one you don’t always admit you own. But… it does get the job done… as such it has a place in your home.
There was a time when I would take every alternative route possible to go anywhere. Every trip was an opportunity to just see another part of the country. Then slowly time became important and I drove to get somewhere and trips became less interesting. When the journey is half the fun… less is expected of the destination. Sometimes just the going is worth the trip.
When I was in high school a friend of mine bought a brand new 1970’s something Ford Pinto… he opened the hood and explained to me just how little he thought of the components that made up his car. But it was brand new. I was driving a decade old (plus some) Thunderbird and loving it. Another friend had a 64 Mustang that he considered a hand-me-down and really wanted a Firebird. A 57 Chevy was something your Grandparents owned … A VW “Thing” was cool… Gremlins were interesting… Bugs were everywhere and the only truly important thing was to drive… anything that moved… was better than the bus or walking.
Time places it own take on the value of a car made 40 years ago. Looking back on typewriters made 90 years ago… I start to think would I buy a fully featured used typewriter or a brand new low-priced one. Where I live someone owns a 1970’s Ford Pinto (not me) and another a Yellow 1959 Caddy… guess which one draws a crowd? Nothing wrong with that Pinto. Noting wrong with a Reliance… either (which for some reason I keep wanting to call Reliant).
I came across this Reliance Premier (my something else)… a week before the Woodstock; and almost one week after the Woodstock the Premier arrives. USPS slow but arrived in perfect shape. When I did research on this typewriter I visited the Yahoo Typewriter Forum and found a post from 2004 entitled “Reliance Premier / typewriter desecration” about someone cutting off the keys… and selling them separate from the typewriter… I thought I could save this machine from such a fate.
My understanding is that only 12,000 of these machines were ever made. Someone kept this one in great shape.
