Your First And Why?

[johnboz]

When I was in college I wanted to make taking notes more exciting, so for some reason I decided a fountain pen was just what I needed. Not knowing fountain pens were still being made, I went in search of a pen on eBay with two criteria: I could afford it and it worked. After a bit of searching, I came across a Parker 45 that checked both boxes.

 

I don't know if it made taking notes any more exciting, but it definitely made it a more enjoyable process. Twenty years later and I still have that pen.

[peterg]

For the last year (possibly more?) we used dip pens at my primary school to 'prepare us for the 'big' school'. My first pen was an Osmiroid 75 (?) which was a sort of graduation present. The company obviously had a deal with the school. We gave a piece of writing and they selected the 'ideal' nib for us, which for me was a standard medium. The pen cost 21 shillings, which was a lot for us and four times the cost of a basic pen.

 

Didn't like it, lost it in short order. At secondary school the option was a dip pen or bring your own, so followed a series of Platignum pens, usually RAF blue with an italic nib and I got to like Sheaffer's peacock blue (turquoise) which sold for 69c. (as I still have the remains of a bottle and box). No idea what I actually paid for it over here though.

 

Thus equipped with an italic nib and turquoise ink I began to enjoy pens and writing.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Sheaffer Cartridge/School pen, and it was a demonstrator

Grade school.

 

There might have been a FP before that, but even that pen was a LONG time ago.

Same here. Mine was translucent yellow. I don't recall WHY I bought it, but I must have thought it looked cool. I no longer have that particular pen, but have acquired many other Sheaffer school pens and they all write WAY above their pay scale.

[Sasha Royale]

Dad had a lovely Parker 51 set. I was forbidden to use it. I got caught half the time. When I was still 10 years old, I started junior high school. The school had a school supply store, in a closet. That's where I bought my Sheaffer Cartridge pen. I had a silver cap and transparent barrel (either blue or green). It came in a "blister" package (very new in 1960), with two cartridges, for 79¢. In the next few years, I destroyed quite a few of these, but never lost the love.

[Fistofheaven]

My first one was a Parker 21. Bought it at an estate sale to sell but I tried it out and it was an experience.

[amcityink]

Thanks for sharing folks, I really enjoyed reading all these world wide stories.

[inkstainedruth]

When I was a kid I acquired what I think in retrospect was a pen/pencil combo (now sadly long since lost) that had been my grandfather's. And I may have had some other cheap cartridge pen after that, but I was always artsy and did drawing with a crow quill dip pen for some art project. When I graduated from high school I asked for a set of Rapid-o-graphs, which I still have but haven't used in years. Studied art in college, including taking calligraphy, but used regular BPs or Flair pens for most writing and note taking.

What pushed me over the edge into the FP world was when I got a book called The Artist's Way, which is a creativity course. One of the things you do is keep a daily journal, and in order to get myself into the habit I got a nice journal and decided to also treat myself to a "real" fountain pen -- I think it was a Parker Reflex (the model with a rubberized grip). After a while the rubber disintegrated, so I got another one, and then when the same thing happened to the second one I ended up with a Parker Vector (because I still had cartridges -- Quink Permanent Blue). I still have that pen but the barrel cracked at the threads, and until I can match the barrel color (apparently cobalt blue was uncommon ) I bought a Vector rollerball to harvest the barrel.

When I accidentally left the pen and the then current journal at my in-laws' 5-1/2 years ago, I started looking for a replacement, and eventually found my way here, and that was the beginning of the free-fall down the rabbit hole....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[TSherbs]

Sheaffer school pen around 1980. I wanted something a little different for my journal writing at college. This was the cheap pen I could find in a bookstore, and the cartridges were easy.

 

 

edit to add: I still have the pen.

Edited July 24, 2017 by TSherbs

[Runnin_Ute]

In grade school in the late 1960's a Sheaffer I picked up at 7-11, which was confiscated by my parents within a few days. Fast forward to the late 1990's. I was looking at a Levenger catalog and saw a Lamy Al Star. Got it and still have it.

[ParkerDuofold]

...I bought a Waterman Laureat, fine nib, marbled blue color. I'm sure I got that because I loved the look, had heard the name Waterman before, and it was the best I could afford - though I'm not sure how much I paid for it. (All I really remember is standing out the counter as we paid for our purchases.) Still have it and love how it writes. (Though it sat in its box from not long after I got it until early 2016 when my brother and I fixed a crack in its section - I'm not sure when that happened as I don't remember whether inky fingers is why I put it in the box or not.)

Hi Liz, et al,

 

That's the very same pen that got me through five years of college and then some! Only I have the bp model... I didn't know what a fp was when I went to college.

 

Be well.

 

 

- Anthony

[LizEF]

Hi Liz, et al,

 

That's the very same pen that got me through five years of college and then some! Only I have the bp model... I didn't know what a fp was when I went to college.

 

Be well.

 

 

- Anthony

 

Mine has the squared-off clip instead of the rounded one, but yeah, that's it. Isn't it gorgeous! What good taste you have.

[ParkerDuofold]

...Isn't it gorgeous!

 

What good taste you have.

 

Yes. It is gorgeous... I still recall all the admiring glances and comments this pen got.

 

I always thought so. You're obviously a lady of discerning tastes yourself.

 

- Anthony

Edited July 25, 2017 by ParkerDuofold

[LizEF]

You're obviously a lady of discerning tastes yourself.

 

[wolfy9791]

Sheaffer school pens! Everyone used them in the 60s and into the 70s. They cost $1 and you could get 5 cartridges for $1 too.

[corgicoupe]

I received a Parker 51 set in 1951 when I graduated from 6th grade. We caled it elementary, but it probably has a different name now. I didn't use it much in Jr high and high school, but I kept it. Then bought 2 Targas in the 1980s, inherited my dad's 1946 Parker in 1990, received a modern Duofold as a gift from my mom in 1992, and that was the beginning of limited acquisition of some Sheaffers and Esterbrooks.

[Pentode]

My grandfather owned a stationery store on lower Broadway in Manhattan from long before I was born until I was in my teens. There were always office supplies around my house. When the grandparents came over, he'd bring school/office supplies whether we needed them or not. It never occurred to me that other people had to pay for that stuff until I was much older!

 

Among the things he supplied us with were fountain pens. Only a few here and there; Mostly he brought whatever was new like Flair felt-tip pens and Bic Crystals, but fountain pens made their way into the mix. Before I was around he;d give my parents Esterbrooks. Later, Sheaffer No-Nonsense and Parker 45s.

 

My mother had been a calligrapher and always carried a fountain pen when I was small and I probably used hers first (a beige No-Nonsense with a stub is what I remember her carrying then) but sometime around when I was 10 or so (1977-ish), I inked up a turquoise Parker 45 that was in the stationery cabinet and I've had it ever since. I did my homework with it straight through college, but usually left it home, which is probably why I never lost it.

 

I still have several pens from his store, including his late-'30s Sheaffer Balance that he kept his books with for decades, but that Parker 45 was the first one that I claimed for my own. A bit narrow now for my adult hands, but it's still a nice pen.

[amcityink]

My grandfather owned a stationery store on lower Broadway in Manhattan from long before I was born until I was in my teens. There were always office supplies around my house. When the grandparents came over, he'd bring school/office supplies whether we needed them or not. It never occurred to me that other people had to pay for that stuff until I was much older!

 

Among the things he supplied us with were fountain pens. Only a few here and there; Mostly he brought whatever was new like Flair felt-tip pens and Bic Crystals, but fountain pens made their way into the mix. Before I was around he;d give my parents Esterbrooks. Later, Sheaffer No-Nonsense and Parker 45s.

 

My mother had been a calligrapher and always carried a fountain pen when I was small and I probably used hers first (a beige No-Nonsense with a stub is what I remember her carrying then) but sometime around when I was 10 or so (1977-ish), I inked up a turquoise Parker 45 that was in the stationery cabinet and I've had it ever since. I did my homework with it straight through college, but usually left it home, which is probably why I never lost it.

 

I still have several pens from his store, including his late-'30s Sheaffer Balance that he kept his books with for decades, but that Parker 45 was the first one that I claimed for my own. A bit narrow now for my adult hands, but it's still a nice pen.

 

Great NYC Story... as I grew up on the Lower East Side and probably walked into your family store... I turned exactly 10 in 77... meaning what? I'm 50 this year!

[Pentode]

 

Great NYC Story... as I grew up on the Lower East Side and probably walked into your family store... I turned exactly 10 in 77... meaning what? I'm 50 this year!

You and me, both!

 

It was Tanner Printing on Broadway and, I believe, Prince.

 

It moved across Broadway for a while in the early '90s and then folded and became a Kate's Paperie for a couple of years. That was all long after my grandfather had sold his half of the store to his partner's family sometime in the early '80s.

[inkstainedruth]

My grandfather owned a stationery store on lower Broadway in Manhattan from long before I was born until I was in my teens. There were always office supplies around my house. When the grandparents came over, he'd bring school/office supplies whether we needed them or not. It never occurred to me that other people had to pay for that stuff until I was much older!

 

Among the things he supplied us with were fountain pens. Only a few here and there; Mostly he brought whatever was new like Flair felt-tip pens and Bic Crystals, but fountain pens made their way into the mix. Before I was around he;d give my parents Esterbrooks. Later, Sheaffer No-Nonsense and Parker 45s.

 

My mother had been a calligrapher and always carried a fountain pen when I was small and I probably used hers first (a beige No-Nonsense with a stub is what I remember her carrying then) but sometime around when I was 10 or so (1977-ish), I inked up a turquoise Parker 45 that was in the stationery cabinet and I've had it ever since. I did my homework with it straight through college, but usually left it home, which is probably why I never lost it.

 

I still have several pens from his store, including his late-'30s Sheaffer Balance that he kept his books with for decades, but that Parker 45 was the first one that I claimed for my own. A bit narrow now for my adult hands, but it's still a nice pen.

 

What a great story! The only FP I really remember growing up was the pen that had been my grandfather's -- I remember trying to put pencil leads in where the lever was, which is why I think it must have been a combo. My mother couldn't understand my fascination with it -- I remember her saying once that fountain pens were messy (but she grew up during the Depression, and my other grandfather was a foreman in a coalmine, so they probably couldn't afford anything but cheap third or fourth tier pens.

Both my parents used BPs exclusively, or typed -- my mother was a writer and even after she upgraded to an IBM Selectric, sometime in the 1970s, she kept the old Royal manual typewriter (she even typed personal correspondence). Not sure what happened to the IBM after she died, but I gave the Royal to a friend who collected typewriters a few years ago.

It's nice that you still have your old Parker 45. I have a few now, and while I don't think I could write the Great American Novel with one, they really are great pens.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[GeoffreyHautecouverture]

Hello,

​I do not remember my very first fountain pen, sure it was a cheap no brand pen. Probably around 1996 or so, I was a young school boy aged between 9 and 11. It was a pen with a folded nib, I only remember that I disliked them since I get my first Parker Vector. I remember having several Vector with a metal barrel in my youth, I used them until the begin of my bachelor. I switched to black ink when the teachers authorised use to use such ink. I did not like the cheap clear and erasable blue ink, until now with the Quink blue/black.

​I stopped to write in cursive letters with my first vector (around 13 year old) because I found it childish. Now I try to go back to a cursive writing, but stylised, so it does not like as childish as in my youth.

Geoffrey