How old are fountain pen enthusiasts?

[vreeves]

Touchy topic.

I was born in 1950 and used a fountain pen in elementary school (an Esterbrook, which I still have!). I also used ballpoints, roller balls and gel pens as they came along, but always perferred fountain pens.

I think that is understandable.

What about people born into the era of ballpoints? What causes them to develop an understanding and love of quirky, sometimes difficult fountain pens?

My kids are 23,25 and 28 and all look at me with love and pity when I pull out a fountain pen. To them I might as well be driving a Model T Ford instead of a Mustang. Despite my example, none of them have the slightest interest in using anything but a Pilot G2.

Are there many members here my kids ages? I would love to hear how you got the bug.

 

 

I was born in March 1967. I did use fountain pens at school, but it was also the age of the green Pentel rollerball, so I used that one as well.

[fuchsiaprincess]

I came to fountain pens late in life. As a child starting school we had to bring our own stones to scratch lines into the cave wall. For art we had to chew charcoal and ocher to spit over our hands leaving shadow paintings. Later we learned to sharpen sticks and make better drawings of the bison that almost killed us yesterday and the mastodon that used to chase us on our way to school.

 

Later we learned to search for the GREAT Fire bird and steal feathers. We went down to the stream and found rocks that we could split giving us sharp edges that could be used to shape the end of the feather into a nib. We would chew up the charcoal or ocher and mix it with water and fat to get lovely inks, red and black, purple and brown. But we had no paper and so tried to write on the hide of the antelope. Unfortunately they refused to stand still so writing became a challenge and often left us gasping for breath.

 

:roflmho:

 

[Ondina]

This is by far one of the most humorous post I've read here. Thank you!.

 

[Elisablue]

 

 

 

Jar , I absolutely love that post too !!! :roflmho: :roflmho:

 

 

I'm 45 years old, learned to write with a dip pen and black ink in my French primary school , that was almost as difficult as trying to write on the hide of the

antelope, , watched my father grade his pupil's papers with his several Parker 51 , :blink: , thought I was quite lonely loving fountain pens until I stumbled on FPN and realized I'm not the only about these beautiful intruments , which is highly comforting .

[robeck]

I have 3 ages.

 

My physical age is 49 years old.

 

My body feels about 70 years old.

 

My mind feels about 18 years old.

 

Regards,

Dean

[TConnell]

Well, I'm 62. I'm just a kid living in an old house...

 

I remember seeing my dad's big, black Sheaffer pen when I was little. (I now recognize it as a PFM.) I guess I got 'infected' with the pen bug 50 years ago or so.

During the years, I owned the occasional Sheaffer cartridge pen. Nothing really 'got me' till I happened across a gift shop in Albuquerque that sold Lamy pens. They had this great thing called a Lamy 2000. It called out to me and I just had to buy it.

 

I guess you know the rest of the story.

 

Now, many years later, I still get a thrill writing with these elegant 'marking sticks'. It's actually soothing to my soul.

 

Later...

 

Thomas Connell

[Lord Henry]

I'm the same age as my tongue

 

and little older than my teeth...

 

38

[youblue9]

I'm 28, and have always had a love of pens, paper, office supplies, calligraphy, art supplies etc. I've been using fountain pens since I was 8 or 9, when I bought my first Pilot Varsity. I was pretty much always on a quest at that age to spend my allowance at the local stationary store, and I think I thought the Varsity was a new even cooler type of pen when they arrived.

 

I shortly progressed from there to a collection of Sheaffer Cartridge/Calligraphy pens, which were pretty much all that any store I could get to carried. I still remember my utter joy when I discovered one with an F nib instead of M at the Office Depot near my Dad's house one summer (I'm really an XF or XXF user by nature). I often had trouble locating much of a selection of pens/ink, much to my frustration.

 

We weren't required to use a fountain pen at any of the schools I attended -- in fact we had to use pencil exclusively until 7th or 8th grade -- but when we were allowed to use pens in school I did use my fountain pens for most of my writing, although pencil was preferred by my school all the way through high school.

 

I do remember reading a book -- probably something by Judy Blume -- when I was 11 or 12 in which the main character lamented the fact that her new teacher required them to do their math with a fountain pen. There's a big dramatic scene where she goes to buy school supplies and has to get the pen and ink and thinks that this new teacher is the worst ever. I remember reading it and wishing that I lived somewhere where I could walk into any store that carried school supplies and find a fountain pen, so I guess I've always had the pen bug!

[Artie]

I am nearly 60,

 

What are we to do with you ..."are you nuts!!" you know the rules.

 

Rule1. When you are 2-3yo, you are "I dont know 20-ten I think"

Rule2. Ages 4-8 you accurately state you age as proof of your grasp of numbers (awwwwrrr ...so grown up)

Rule3. Ages 9-25 "I am nearly" and take your age to the next year, eg, a 9yo is nearly 10

Rule4. Ages 25+ YOU NEVER SAY YOU ARE NEARLY 60 WHEN YOU WERE BORN IN 1950.

 

YOU ARE 59!!

 

Alright, I suppose that I have to cough up.

Well I write like a 10yo but I am 47 (but look much younger)(Does having a young wife count?)

 

but when you get to be 80+ you start every conversation with how old you are

 

[Treehugger]

I just turned 37 a couple weeks ago.

I developed what I will call an interest in FP's while working at an office supply store during high school. Not a big box store, a real store that actually carried a variety and if we didn't have it we would get it.(my jab at big box stores ). I used to look at the case full of MB, Watermans, Parkers etc and think who in there right mind would pay that kind of money for a pen. Yet they always fascinated me. Before long I had my first Cross FP. After loosing it a few years later I went FP free for some time. Then about a year and a half ago right before my mom died she got me 2 FP's. My interest has now become an obssesion. Thats my story. Sorry if I have bored you, and thanks for listening.

[encremental]

I'm 56 and three quarters at the moment (the way I think of it is that I will have my bus pass for the London Olympics) and have used fountain pens since I was a child and am from a time when unless you wrote strange letters to the newspapers, there were really only three colours of ink.

 

In Europe, pens are still routinely used in secondary schools, so they don't have quite the exotic quality they seem to have in the U.S., although I think the lore of blotting paper is becoming lost. Incredibly, sometimes I use a piece that I had when I was at school - it really does last that long!

 

Collecting, though, is an entirely different matter. I began in earnest only four years ago, and would never tell anyone that I didn't know well how much a pen might cost or how many of the things I have. Apart from MB, people seem not to have any real idea about how much these things are, and perhaps as a group we do lull each other into the semi-hypnotised state where really quite astronomical prices seem routine and even good value. Is it a nerd thing, do you think? I have friends for whom shoes fulfil a similar but for me entirely mysterious function. If Christian Louboutin made pens I would completely understand!

 

John

[I am not a number]

...although I think the lore of blotting paper is becoming lost.

I still carry a pocket blotter around and often get strange looks, not for using a fountain pen, but for blotting after I finish writing.

[Silvermink]

31 here. Seems odd - lots of baby boomers and gen y but not to many from gen x.

 

I like how you posted that and were then immediately followed up by three other Gen-Xers.

[encremental]

IANAN - you are so right. I keep a bit by my desk at work, and younger people pick it up wonderingly. I think that even here on FPN, the number of queries about ink drying time mean that blotter virgins (or possibly a statistically interesting number of left handers) are on the increase.

 

John

 

And I'm sure you will agree that even when you can find it it's not what it was (but then, apart from Fray Bentos pies, what is?)

[nofa]

31 here. Seems odd - lots of baby boomers and gen y but not to many from gen x.

 

I like how you posted that and were then immediately followed up by three other Gen-Xers.

 

28 to 44 -- We make up only 46 million, far smaller than the 80 million baby boomers and the 78 million millennials (according to http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,85...731528,00.html). Phormio spoke, and I spoke up with solidarity.

 

To quote Jeff Gordinier, author of X Saves the World: How Generation X Got the Shaft But Can Still Keep Everything From Sucking, "GenXers are doing the quiet work of keeping America from sucking." (Quote is not relevant at all. But with Wikipedia, you learn many things.)

[The Moose]

I'm 40. I began doing calligraphy and illumination when I was 18. I discovered that fountain pens are a lot easier than other types of pens when one has carpal tunnel. I got that fixed, but still prefer them.

[bwnewton]

I hope this doesn't diverge too far from the question. I'm 46. My children are 26, 23 & 19. My 23 year old daughter noticed my recent return to FPs and had just started keeping a journal. She liked an inexpensive Pilot 78g with a stub italic nib I was using. I bought her one & a bottle of PR Copper Burst ink. She enjoys it. My son (19), a young artist highly skilled in pencil & ink, especially drawing portraits, was enthused when he saw/used both my Lamy Safari mechanical pencil and EF FP. He was going to order them himself, so I just told him I'd buy his first FP and gave him 1/2 bottle of Noodler's BP Black. He enjoys it greatly. The eldest, she thinks she'd like one as well. So, Lord willing, I'll try to get her one soon.

[mcrouse]

I am 40. I will be 41 this summer. My kids think I am ancient. I feel like a kids sometimes and like an old man at other times.

[mucephei]

31 here. Seems odd - lots of baby boomers and gen y but not to many from gen x.

 

I'm a Gen-X-er and I use fountain pens almost every day. So we are around...

[Donald594]

14, turning 15 in 25 days!