Things, Long Gone
By Morley Hunt
@Morleyhunt (21744)
Canada
January 15, 2017 6:01am CST
Reading about some of the bygone memories of other Mylotters, invited by @LoriMoore one more came to mind.
This memory was actually triggered by a post about pencils. We all remember pencils...this was probably the first thing we used in school...at home we used crayons.
When we graduated from writing with pencils....way back in the day.....we were presented with a straight pen.
The companions to the straight pen were an inkwell and a blotter.
Now that I'm on a roll....the blotter was often the giveaway of choice....not a pen, not a fridge magnet (had they even been invented?), nor a key fob or mini flashlight.
Once we had mastered the dip, write, blot with the straight pen we were permitted to use the fountain pen. A straight pen was good for about three or four words between dips....a fountain pen would usually only need to be filled once a day.
Eventually we were permitted to use a ball point pen and by the time I was in highschool there were no straight pens and very few fountain pens in evidence.
I do not miss the ink stains on my fingers.
18 people like this
15 responses
@garymarsh6 (23412)
• United Kingdom
15 Jan 17
I loved writing with a fountain pen although I dropped so many over the years I could not afford to keep buying them. It annoyed me when people got offended when they asked to use the pen and I told them no sorry. It ruins the nip if someone else uses the pen. I still like to write with a fountain pen though!
4 people like this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
15 Jan 17
I loved writing with a fountain pen...a good nib was so smooth...the words literally flowed from the pen. Somewhere, I still have my old pen.
2 people like this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
16 Jan 17
The fountain pen I preferred was a Schaeffer.
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
16 Jan 17
I must not talk in class.
I must not talk in class.
I must not talk in class.
How many times did I write those lines.
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
16 Jan 17
@velvet53 I was always in trouble for talking in class.
1 person likes this
@1creekgirl (41879)
• United States
15 Jan 17
When I was a teenager, I had a favorite fountain pen that I loved to use when writing in my journals. I was upset when it finally became impossible to find the refills for it.
@1creekgirl (41879)
• United States
15 Jan 17
@Morleyhunt There's something very familiar about the fill lever. I wonder if that's what I had in earlier years, then used the cartridges later.
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
15 Jan 17
Some office supply stores still have the cartridges. The ones with cartridges weren't fountain pens though....although the out ward appearance was almost identical. They didn't have the fill lever.
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
15 Jan 17
@1creekgirl probably....at the end of the era, it was easier to find a cartridge pen than a fountain pen.
1 person likes this
@Happy2BeMe (99380)
• Canada
15 Jan 17
What a great memory. It is fun to look back on time gone by. Things have really changed a lot over the years. I remember when we were learning cursive writing and how every letter had to be written perfectly. We had to so it over and over again until it was. Now they don't even teach cursive writing in school.
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
16 Jan 17
@Happy2BeMe those young cashiers, when faced with making change must rely on the cash register. Don't mess things up by giving the the $0.10 if your total is $9.10.
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
15 Jan 17
They also do not teach spelling. And memory work is considered child abuse....
1 person likes this
@Happy2BeMe (99380)
• Canada
16 Jan 17
@Morleyhunt Another thing is the times tables. They don't teach it the way that they use to. They rush through it. Everybody depends on calculators now it seems.
@Gita17112016 (3611)
• Trinidad And Tobago
16 Jan 17
I have those memories too...of school days, and painful penmanship, and getting pockets and blouse stained with ink. And getting 'licks' for soiling your clothes or bag. I remember too when we were forbidden to use a ball point pen until they didn't have them selling anymore. I am pretty versatile with both types of pen...although I am thankful there are no stains now! Ever wonder if with computer and tablets, if our children will remember how to write?
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
16 Jan 17
Sadly I'm afraid many children are functionally illiterate. They can read but writing is just not going to happen...math....without a calculator many are lost.
@lyanhnan (151)
• Thrissur, India
15 Jan 17
There is only one thing that is constant - CHANGE
And so as always, the old giveth way to the new. Time spares nothing. We leave footprints on the sand only to be washed away by the relentless sea.
@jstory07 (140438)
• Roseburg, Oregon
15 Jan 17
I never saw or used a fountain pen that you filled with ink. I always used ball point pens.
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
16 Jan 17
My thoughts were triggered by the post you referred to as well as one by LoriMoore and Uncle Joe.
1 person likes this
@Tampa_girl7 (50774)
• United States
16 Jan 17
We started with big fat pencils and then we had special pens to learn to write with.
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
16 Jan 17
Those fat primary pencils were what most of us learned to write with.
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (220872)
• Walnut Creek, California
15 Jan 17
Am I just a tad younger? No fountain pens in my memories. Just crayons in preschool and then pencils in school. And those pencil sharpeners on the classroom walls that smelled good to me. I found sharpening a pencil satisfying, kind of like how I feel toward vacuuming now.
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
16 Jan 17
I don't know. I'm 60. I attended a rural one room school house for grade one. I started early because the teacher thought I was old enough (I kept showing up at school when I was four).
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
15 Jan 17
I grew up in the city and school used pencils. I'm jealous! I never used a pen and ink and blotter until I was in Art College and we used them to draw with...
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
15 Jan 17
@Morleyhunt I don't remember ever using a fountain pen in school. I found this: How the Ballpoint Pen Killed Cursive and I was thinking I never did a real cursive writing, all I remember using are ballpoint pens. Very interesting - it must have been a Canadian thing, I will ask around , my neighbors and friends. Now I'm sorry I never got use a fountain pen in school.
2 people like this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
15 Jan 17
We started to use straight pens in grade four. In grade six we were required to provide our own fountain pen. The school supplied the ink.
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (220872)
• Walnut Creek, California
15 Jan 17
@PainsOnSlate I was taught cursive but never used it.
2 people like this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
15 Jan 17
I have an old treadle sewing machine. I want to get it up and working again this winter.
@just4him (317720)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
17 Jan 17
I remember seeing a fountain pen, and even told how to fill one, but I've never used one.
