Seeing Pens Out In The Wild

[thesunshine]

I'm just curious to know how often other people manage to see others using fountain pens in day-to-day life? And when you do see one, do you say anything to them?

 

A little background on what happened to me yesterday....

 

Until yesterday, I only knew of one other person in my workplace (a major multinational company) who uses fountain pens regularly. But he was the guy who introduced me to fountain pens so he doesn't count.

 

But yesterday, I was in a meeting with a bunch of people that I had never met before. I was listening and taking notes, when I noticed that a person in the meeting was using a Pilot V-pen! What I wanted to do was to squeal with joy and immediately ask her why she decided to use fountain pens, why she chose the V-pen, and whether she wanted to go back to my desk and try out my pens

 

What I actually did was start taking slightly more copious notes with my LAMY 2000, with a fair few more flourishes, in the hope that she would notice and we could have a fountain pen chat after the meeting. In my defence, it was a fairly important meeting

 

Next time I see this woman, I will wander up to her and have a chat about fountain pens, but in the meantime I was wondering if anyone else has ever had the experience of spotting another fountain pen user in the wild?

[Penne Stilografiche]

I did see one other kid in my school using a fountain pen, but I was the one to introduce him to fountain pens so it doesn't count...

[Jadie]

Not yet. The closest I've come to a "wild spotting" was a poster with a fountain pen on it (typical no-name skinny-black pen with the gold Iridium Point Germany nib) at a local Costco.

 

I wonder if FP users haunt certain locations...bookstores and cafes, perhaps?

[JessR45]

I have had a couple of years now indulging in this passion of ours, and I have yet to see anybody using a fountain pen (except the kind folks at my local pen shops or at the pen shows). I guess I am just not in the right place at the right time.... I wonder how I will react when I finally get to see one in the wild (?). At the least I will be so thrilled.

 

I also have a passion for mechanical watches, and imagine my reaction when I saw a gentleman actually wearing a Patek Philippe perpetual (Reference 3940) at Costco recently. I was almost out of my mind.

[doggonecarl]

Only twice in two years, both at the Episcopal church I attend. I was taking classes to be received into the church and there was a guy there using a fountain pen. I asked him about it. It was the only one he had, a Waterman. It was given to him as a gift, and he carried it every day. The other time, I glanced down into the pew in front of me and the lady sitting there had her purse slightly open. She had a Pilot V Pen in it.

[iliadodyssey]

Caught a student of mine last year using a Sheaffer no nonsense in my class. I might have scared him since he never used it within sight of me again!

[balson]

i saw someone in the window of a DC coffee shop yesterday with a modern fountain pen. i stopped, gawked, and thought of things i might say to them but i ended up moving on.

 

At least once a week though someone will stop me and ask me about my pen. usually they notice when i get out the bottle to refill it. usually its sort of a confused bewilderment as to why i would bother lugging around a bottle of ink with me but about a quarter of the people are excited to see me use one.

 

once every month or two i will run into someone who has one tucked away in an old desk somewhere and they will tell me about it. i give them my card with an offer to buy it or fix it up but i never hear back from them.

[scrivelry]

Not recently, although I have seen quills at living history demos. Years ago I was in a choir, and the secretary had and used a fountain pen. It was green, and I think there must have been a matching pencil and she kept them in a leather case...

[Opooh]

The only people I see that also use FP, are the ones I meet in my favourite penshop in Tilburg.

[pajaro]

Never in a long time. There was a City Manager of the City of Pensacola who liked espensive Pelikans, mainly Toledos. Talking to one of his assistants I found out that they were always sending the pens back to Fahrney's for new penpoints, because he kept bending them. This sounded perfectly ridiculous to me until I remembered some of the emails I used to get from him about IT stuff he wanted. They were replete with too many words and letters splattering out. Like a lot of managers, he was fairly impatient. No patience for us dolts and drones. He had a lot of good ideas, though and was an eloquent speaker. I liked him more when I saw all the Pelikans he had on his desk, but I was a Parker 51 and Montblanc guy back then.