How do the fountain Pens You use compare those your parents used?

[top pen]

I was thinking about this a few days ago how the pens I seem to favor compare to those my parents used to use. My Dad used to use to use a few Parker's a 45 and 61 and my Mum used to use a slim rotring fountain pen. Not all that dissimilar to the pens I favor a few low to upper mid tier Parkers, a few rotrings several of another lesser known German brand Diplomat.

Any photos would be great.

[jar]

Many of the pens I use were the pens they used. And some were used by my grandparents.

[fqgouvea]

Many of the pens I use were the pens they used. And some were used by my grandparents.

Exactly! My parents used Parker 51s and other pens of that era, so I'm more attuned to my grandparents' pens. Alas, my parents switched to ballpoints...


Fernando Gouvêa -- fqgouvea@roadrunner.com

[I like mango pudding]

Yup. The old standby of the P51.

[Robert]

My father and mother were born in 1918 and 1920, respectively: Depression Era children. As I kid I remember finding a few Esterbrooks - maybe an old Parker. As did many folks, with the advent of the ballpoint they ceased using fountain pens.

[ppmiranda]

My parents had several fountain pens, but I believe most unbranded ones. When I teenager my father was given a Parker 51 that belonged to his grandfather, but it's lost in time. I have a Parker 51 I really treasure (gift from my wife) and it's one pen I use all the time. In fact I tend to like pens just like the "51": simple and reliable.

Unfortunately my parents also switched to ballpoints, but I know my father had at least 2 modern fountain pens in the last decade, but I don't have I clue which models.

[katherine]

I don't have any of the pens my parents used growing up, but I have a couple of the late 90s to early 2000s ones my mom and grandfather used. I think both prefer ballpoints now though.

I have a Sheaffer modern Crest from my mom, a AG Spalding tiny pocket pen from my grandfather and a ridiculous Da Vinci-print Waterman from I'm not sure which one of them. (I really like how the last pen writes, but cartridges don't fit well, causing leaks, and it's pretty ugly)

[Paddler]

I too am still using my parents' pens: two Snorkels, a Hundred Year Pen, and an Eversharp. I have had to re-sac them all a few times, but they still work as well as they ever did. The few modern pens I have don't write any better.

[Kaputnik]

My parents were born in 1924 and 1925, so they must have used fountain pens, and possibly even dip pens when they were schoolchildren. But I never saw them use anything other than ballpoints.

[Lady Onogaro]

My mother remembers using dip pens and ink wells, and she was born in 1939, so she would have been using them in 1945. She went to a rural school, and she says she has more memories of using pencils than pens.

[Hawk]

I have my parents Sheaffer desk pen that was on their desk (I have the desk also). I never saw them use it. They used a Parker Jotter that I still have. My dad used mechanical pencils that were a give-a-way from the painting contractor that he worked for. My parents were born in the teens.

[Wahl]

I am using my father´s and older brother´s pens.

[jar]

The watch my mom bought for my dad when they got engaged and the fountain pen he gave her at that time.


http://www.fototime.com/88BDC37701598D8/large.jpg

one of Gpop's Sheaffers

http://www.fototime.com/58A8DB926C0C2A0/large.jpg

[Anne]

My parents used fountain pens in school. I never got the chance to ask my father about them, but from what my mother says, it sounds like she used lever fillers with an inkwell at her schooldesk. She only uses a fountain pen now when I put one in her hand and ask her to Christen a new purchase by writing with it :)
My brother bought my father a Parker Vector that looked like it was seldom used and I write with it now. He also bought himself one and a Sheaffer Calligraphy set that I enjoy using as well.

[fountainpenkid]

Only one of my parents, my father, uses a fountain pen with any regularity: a Pelikan MC120, made a few decades back as a part of a calligraphy set. As a lefty, he also has a few Osmoroids with 'lefty' grinds (obliques, stubs...). My mom has my late grandfather's Parker 75 in GF, but doesn't use it. Occasionally my sister and I use my great grandmother's Esterbrook SJ in red (in my dad's possession for a while). My step-grandfather has a nice collection of them, but uses them infrequently (a few I can think of are a Visconti Van Gogh (first version with 14k nib), Parker 75 sterling silver, Pelikan m250, Waterman Man 100, and Cross Townsend). My collection has been overwhelmingly vintage--Pelikans, Sheaffers, Auroras and Parkers all pre 1960 have been daily users for me for quite some time.

[Sailor Kenshin]

I was thinking about this a few days ago how the pens I seem to favor compare to those my parents used to use. My Dad used to use to use a few Parker's a 45 and 61 and my Mum used to use a slim rotring fountain pen. Not all that dissimilar to the pens I favor a few low to upper mid tier Parkers, a few rotrings several of another lesser known German brand Diplomat.

Any photos would be great.

I inherited my mother's Esterbrook, though I don't recall ever seeing her use it. For that matter, I never saw my father, or my grandparents, write with fountain pens. But they must have, at some time, especially my grandparents. I just never saw them in use.

[FredRydr]

Both parents born in 1920, and me the youngest child born in 1952, I saw my mother write with a copper Esterbrook for formal notes and Christmas cards, while I never saw my father use a fountain pen. He was hooked on ballpoints quite early, and never used fancy pens even though members of his profession typically did.

Fred

[ac12]

Unfortunately, I don't have my fathers pens nor do I remember Sheaffer or Parker.
But I do have my mothers pens, all desk pens; Parker 51, Sheaffer dolphin, Sheaffer Imperial, Eversharp.
I used her 51 all through college, as my homework pen.
I currently use 2 Parker 51 desk pens at home, so essentially the same as my mothers pens.

Makes me wonder who will get my pens, and if they will use it.

[Jerome Tarshis]

My parents, born in the first decade of the twentieth century, used pens of their relative youth. The 1920s and 1930s: my father a well-taken-care-of Parker Duofold, my mother something else of good quality, a lever filler, but I don't remember which one. I grew up being taught that the best quality is the best value, so there was a question of buying something good and then taking care of it: no need to buy another if you've already got what you want.

Skip a couple of decades and we have me, beginning with dip pens in school, up to Wearevers and Esterbrooks, and then in 1949 a Parker 51. It is still my favorite pen. But there wouldn't have been a Vacumatic in my immediate family, because by the time the Vac came out they already had their pens, and I wouldn't have been born yet.

Something to remember about the America of my youth: we were a Parker family, and there were Sheaffer families. It was analogous to being a Ford family or a Chevrolet (or General Motors) family. I have no idea whether families in other countries bought pens in the same way.

[jar]

Something to remember about the America of my youth: we were a Parker family, and there were Sheaffer families. It was analogous to being a Ford family or a Chevrolet (or General Motors) family. I have no idea whether families in other countries bought pens in the same way.

My dad was an only son and somewhat of a rebel. While my paternal grandfather liked Hamilton watches and Sheaffer pens, my dad liked Elgin watches and Parker pens. But in Baltimore there was a similar "family" divide between those who liked Stieff and those who liked Kirk silverware.

[brunico]

My mother had an italic Osmiroid 65, some sort of burgundy colour, which she gave to me when I was about eight. Wish I still had it.

[Sailor Kenshin]

My mother had an italic Osmiroid 65, some sort of burgundy colour, which she gave to me when I was about eight. Wish I still had it.

Someone gave me a blue one. They are wonderful! Still available on fleabay, but at outrageous prices. It's said that those Osmiroid nibs are interchangeable with those of Esterbrook.

[distracted_mom]

Something to remember about the America of my youth: we were a Parker family, and there were Sheaffer families. It was analogous to being a Ford family or a Chevrolet (or General Motors) family. I have no idea whether families in other countries bought pens in the same way.

I have inherited my grandmother's Sheaffer Triumph Tuckaway and my sister is inheriting my grandfather's Sheaffer Valiant. I guess we were/are a Sheaffer family.

[Hawk]

Something to remember about the America of my youth: we were a Parker family, and there were Sheaffer families. It was analogous to being a Ford family or a Chevrolet (or General Motors) family. I have no idea whether families in other countries bought pens in the same way.

My dad was an only son and somewhat of a rebel. While my paternal grandfather liked Hamilton watches and Sheaffer pens, my dad liked Elgin watches and Parker pens. But in Baltimore there was a similar "family" divide between those who liked Stieff and those who liked Kirk silverware.

I prefer Hamilton and Illinois pocket watches, and Parker pens. Does that fit in?

[tnordl]

I use my grandfather and my great grandfather parker vacumatics every day at work (refurbished). My heart stopped when I did not find one of them in my breast pocket last Friday. I like the idea that they are still used.

[tnordl]

Ahh found it on my desk after ending lunch early and a short dash to my office.

[amk]

Father and I are both Parker 51, 45, Victory and Slimfold users, though he has a couple of more recent Parkers I wouldn't touch with a bargepole.

And one of the reasons I was so keen to get a Faber-Castell Ondoro in orange was that it reminded me of some of the excellent art pens that I was allowed to play with when I went to visit him at his newspaper office. Only in external looks, of course!

But I'm afraid no one in my family had the Waterman and celluloid virus. I must have picked that up... in the wild :-)

[ian1964]

My mother had an italic Osmiroid 65, some sort of burgundy colour, which she gave to me when I was about eight. Wish I still had it.

My first Fountain Pen at the age of 10 was a burgundy Osmiroid 65 and I still have it to this day. A lovely pen indeed.

[RuiFromUK]

One of the pens I use was from my mother: Conklin Halloween/Clown with a flexible nib.

If you do not know what it looks like there are four here:

http://www.jakespens.net/gallery/ Just search for Halloween. The one I have is the orange, white and black one.

[top pen]

One of the pens I use was from my mother: Conklin Halloween/Clown with a flexible nib.

If you do not know what it looks like there are four here:

http://www.jakespens.net/gallery/ Just search for Halloween. The one I have is the orange, white and black one.

Interesting looking pen, very distinctive.

[top pen]

One of the pens I use was from my mother: Conklin Halloween/Clown with a flexible nib.

If you do not know what it looks like there are four here:

http://www.jakespens.net/gallery/ Just search for Halloween. The one I have is the orange, white and black one.

How did your mother come by such a pen?

[top pen]

One of the pens I use was from my mother: Conklin Halloween/Clown with a flexible nib.

If you do not know what it looks like there are four here:

http://www.jakespens.net/gallery/ Just search for Halloween. The one I have is the orange, white and black one.

Does the pen have a story behind it? It's very different to pens I have seen of that era.

[oldstoat]

My father couldn't care less about pens but my mother, who had beautiful handwriting used Parkers ( a 25, a17 and a 75) and a Lady Sheaffer. I still have the 75 and the Sheaffer. Both are reliable, and like many pens that are now vintage, better writers than many modern pens. She wrote all her reports long hand before having them typed and a pen that didn't write well would not have lasted.

[DPWilkens]

I have to go back two or three generations (American in early 30s) to find people who used fountain pens in my family. My late grandfather talked about using dip nib pens and inkwells in school (c. 1930s). My wife's grandmother won a Parker Vacumatic in a shorthand contest in school (c. 1940s), which she gave to me a couple of years ago. It has a very fine nib, and I'm not sure whether such a fine pen would have been great for the swooping characters of Gregg shorthand (I work in a public library now, and there is one older woman who keeps coming back in and reserving the last book in the catalog about shorthand-- it isn't even part of our own collection, but belongs to a rural partner library. Yet 60 years ago Gregg would have been a standard office skill). My wife's grandfather gave me a Sheaffer Balance that had been owned by his father. It has a sort of flexible gold stub nib. However, neither of them had used the pens for many decades. I suspect fountain pens fell by the wayside in American life with the advent of ballpoint pens, and maybe cheaper electric typewriters, but also because of a great wave of modern design aesthetic that I associate with the Space Age. If you think about it, for most Americans, nothing was really "new" during the 1930s or 1940s, and by the time the postwar era brought more wealth and consumer goods into most peoples hands they must have been in a hurry to embrace modern appliances, housing, even writing instruments. Conversely, my favorite pens incorporate elements reminiscent of the Art Nouveau or Art Deco movements of the early 20th century--not necessarily expensive remakes of old designs, but cheap Indian acrylic or ebonite eyedropper fillers and Chinese plastic pens like the Wing Sung "Lucky".

[scrivelry]

My father does not remember having fountain pens at home - he remembers dip pens and bottles of ink. My mother did have cartridge pens she used in school - probably high school and college - I suspect they were Wearevers or Scriptos -nothing even the wildest imagination would have considered a fancy pen at the time. My parents did not exactly come from money.

I remember that when I saw fountain pens (Shaeffer school carts) hanging on cards in the Ben Franklin I was told they were not "Real" fountain pens - one of those was my first fountain pen, probably lost long, long ago...

[KBeezie]

If either of my parents (or grandparents) used one, then I'd imagine it'd be the same since I have mostly vintage pens. But I don't recall either of my parents using fountain pens or anything that they could remember past middle/high school. And just a faint recollection that my Grandmother used to use an eversharp shaped like either a skyline or symphony.

[pajaro]

I use a 51 that looks just like my father's, and I have a Sheaffer desk pen like my mother's.

All the new schlock I bought after finding pen forums sits in pen cups, gathering dust.

[Avalona]

I tend to use school and low-budget pens and not unsurprisingly, many of my vintage/semi-vintage (this is what I've taken to calling the pens from the 80s and 90s. They're not quite vintage yet, but they're getting there) pens match what my parents had. My mom was instantly able to recognize my Parker 45 as being like the ones she used in university in the 60s/70s, so I'm assuming she must have had a 45 or 51. She's also into calligraphy and really, my first exposure to fountain pens was her Sheaffer No Nonsense calligraphy pen (which was also the pen she never would let me touch because I would have probably pulled it apart trying to figure out how everything fits together, or accidentally break the cartridges open), so not unsurprisingly, I had to get my own No Nonsense pens. I know my father used fountain pens for work and university in the 70s and 80s. I've found some of his class composition books, and it's all written in what is probably Parker blue or Sheaffer Skrip blue. He told me he used to have them but they're lost somewhere in our house or storage shed or his mother's house.