They were pretty much the alternative to pencils and crayons when I was a kid. :) Cheap ball points weren't readily available till I was eight or so. At my grammar school we used dip pens. Ball points weren't allowed till I was in fifth grade. I never learned to hold a ball point properly until a year or two ago. For me it was always a practical matter. I have a much better chance of writing legibly with a fountain pen. Once I discovered italic points when I was seventeen I never looked back.
On 12/16/2011 1:20 PM, James Partridge wrote:
I'm curious how folks got started in this hobby? What attracted you to fountain pens in the first place, and how long did it take for the interest to grow into an addiction?For me, it was when my wife gave me a fountain pen for a gift many years ago. It was a Waterman Hemisphere that she had purchased from eBay. She had gotten one (a Waterman Gentleman) from her father as a gift when she graduated law school and enjoyed it. She also thought that every lawyer ought to have at least one nice pen - and I didn't have one.I remember opening the box and, upon viewing the pen, thought, "what a stupid gift!" Like many of the uninitiated, I figured pens were free from my office supply closet, so why would I want to carry this around, especially since I'd probably lose it anyway. Graciously, I said thank you, and brought the pen to my office where it sat on my desk, barely used.A few months later, my father's birthday rolled around and I was planning to send him a birthday card. Seeing the pen on my desk, I re-inked it, wrote a nice note on the inside of the card and addressed the envelope. I wrote more slowly than usual because I was generally unfamiliar with fountain pens and didn't want to smear ink.My father phoned me a few days later to thank me for the card. To my surprise, he asked me who addressed the envelope and wrote in the card, because the handwriting was too neat for it to have come from me (I have always had notoriously poor handwriting - in elementary school, I consistently got "Ns" (for "needs improvement") in handwriting). Upon reflection, I realized that the fountain pen had improved my handwriting - probably because I slowed down to write more legibly.This epiphany led me to research pens. Soon, as they say, the hook was set. The more I learned about the effect nib size and shape has on writing, I began to covet different pens with a variety of different nibs. From there, it progressed to learning about inks - different colors, different consistencies, different properties. Within a year, I was full-fledged pen geek.So - now you know my story. What's yours? James Partridge The Pear Tree Pen Company www.PearTreePens.com <http://www.peartreepens.com/> Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/peartreepens Like us on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/peartreepens