A question from a reader:
Hi Muffy,
May I ask a question which I hope is pertinent to the blog.
Do people, other than me, use fountain pens? My father gave me my first fountain pen when I was eleven years old and I've used one ever since. I always carry one to appointments in case I need to sign my name and at home I use one exclusively as I did when I was working prior to retirement. Obviously most correspondence is by email nowadays, but I still prefer sending hand written notes and letters.
Am I alone in this?
Kind regards
I have a collection of fountain pens which I rarely use except for that special note. I carry a roller ball and ballpoint in my handbag.
ReplyDeleteOf course, gentle reader. I have been using a fountain pen since the 1950s and have gotten much less messy since. In addition to the beauty of the ink, I find that with a good fountain pen I can write effortlessly for hours on end. Of course, with a bad fountain pen it is a short, scratchy fight. Over the years I have used Parkers, Shaeffers, Watermans, Lamys, Mont Blancs, Osmiroids, and Pelikans. The Shaeffer in my desk set was lovely, but by far my favorite has been the medium sized, gold nib Pelikan Souveran. An added bonus is leaving behind only a small glass bottle.
ReplyDeleteI love the smell of the ink when you open the bottle
DeleteCatholic elementary school circa 1950s. Northeast New Jersey town on the cliffs overlooking the Hudson and Manhattan beyond. Nuns taught us the Palmer Penmanship Method. Each desk had an inkwell and blotting paper. Fountain pen required for all writing except pencil for arithmetic. Report card included a column for penmanship grade. Maybe these comments will prompt locating an old Mont Blanc and practicing Palmer.again. A fountain pen is perfect for Palmer script.
ReplyDeleteMe too on Catholic school and penmanship. My daughter refuses to believe I got a A in it.
DeleteIt was not just Catholic schools. Norfolk Academy was much the same. I, too, remember the Palmer method.
DeleteThe nuns who taught in the Catholic grammar school I attended were the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. They taught the required religion classes. We learned some history and some geography. They taught us to add, subtract, multiply and divide. There was little classroom time allocated to science and art. But - we could diagram sentences. We sure could diagram sentences. And, yes, good penmanship was necessary. Good penmanship I suppose is no longer needed. But one must still be able to communicate ideas and concepts clearly and effectively. I am the oldest of six. All of us went to the same grammar school. We all diagrammed a lot of sentences. And each of us has done quite well in professions that require clear written communication.
DeleteIn response to Anonymous at 9:03 a.m., I know this is, to a degree, off topic, but it is so juicy! Diagramming sentences is a valuable skill, not because of the Rube Goldberg drawings it engenders but because it gives the diagramming person an understanding of how a sentence is constructed. That knowledge, coupled with learning the cases, tenses, and such of a language like Latin, enables one to write with clarity, assuming they also embrace the Oxford comma.
DeleteWrite a lot of notecards to staff members at work. Very much enjoy using a Parker rollerball. Amazing how often I get an email response to a handwritten notecard, but they are appreciated nonetheless. JDV
ReplyDeleteI too attended school with inkwells in the desks and blotting paper in the drawers (not catholic though) One pupil was nominated each year as "ink monitor"
ReplyDelete"Hand written" needs a hyphen, no matter what implement you use to write it.
ReplyDeleteI stand corrected
Delete