In the late '50s and early '60s, my elementary public (in the American sense) school near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA featured pencils and ballpoints, so no excitement there.
At the same time, the girl who I later married attended an independent girls school near Guilford, Surrey UK and used a Parker 17 that her father bought for her (he wrote with Parker pens, probably because of the royal warrant). By sheer chance, when she and I were in the late Bert Heiserman's Pen Haven in Maryland, she mentioned this pen to Bert. He brought out from a cabinet a mint Parker "17" made in England, in the very color blue that she recalled! I still have it, uninked, with it's squeeze converter embossed with instructions: TO FILL PRESS RIBBED BAR AT LEAST 5 TIMES and THE PARKER PEN CO LTD LONDON ENGLAND.
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