Anecdote My Mother Told Me

[sandy101]

My mother just told this story about her and her father (my recently deceased grandfather).

 

She said it was from the time when "you had to use Fountain pens, because there weren't any others."

 

He'd sent her to the shop when she was a wee girl to get him a bottle of ink. My mum asked him what colour ink he wanted, and his sarcastic reply was green ink. So my mum went down the shop, and bought him a bottle of green ink. As a result, my grandfather wrote in green ink for a very long time.

 

I'm not sure if my mother misunderstood my grandfather, or quite likely that my grandfather didn't realise that the little shop down the road would sell green ink as well as his usual black or blue and so he got stuck with green ink.

 

 

[Out0Mind]

True or not, that totally made my day.

[shawndp]

I can see my grandfather doing the same thing! He was a Parker man with very precise script, but I imagine he would write through a whole bottle of green ink rather than toss it too... Not sure he would approve of my ink collection... My grandther has passed on too, he could wield a 51 every bit as well as a Bic and had a line to the effect of "good handwriting is the mark of a gentleman" - there isn't a time I pick up a fountain pen that I don't think of him... Thanks for the anecdote!

[sidthecat]

The head of MI5 uses green ink - tradition and all.

[zwack]

The head of MI5 uses green ink - tradition and all.

C the head of MI6 uses green ink... It has been discussed several times on here.

 

I find it amusing that C in 2009 was Sir John Scarlett and used Green ink.

[sandy101]

The chair of John Lewis (a large UK department store chain) also uses green ink. It's a company tradition which stretches back years, so that the chair's missives could be distinguished from others. Not sure if it is still used.

[dojocho]

About 20 yrs ago, the head master of our school asked me whether I had the audacity to correct a misspelled verb on a public official document of our school.

I replied that the moment I would do so, she'd recognise both my handwriting and the colour of my ink. (I wrote with Penman Ruby back then). Last week one of my colleagues saw me signing reportcards and said she really liked the Binder Burgundy.

Most of my colleagues use disposable ballpoints (which are prohibited in my classroom) and if they use a fp, it's mainly filled with mainstream blue. Strange, they always grade with red, while I always use the same colour...I always award points for what's correct rather than looking for what's wrong.

 

regards,

 

Hugo