My text only shows up as a straignt line and not the letters themselves - why?

I am trying to enter text on a new document to make a title page, but all I see after creating the new document and selecting the text tool is a straight line where my text should be.  I want to know how I can get my text to show up.  What am I not doing that I should be doing to get my text to show as I type?  I have the font size set to 36, so something should show, but it doesn't.  Thanks