Is anyone here a "cradle" FP user?

[adhoc]

Sort of. I started using FPs in primary school at around age 9 in 1997. I never used ballpoints, but I did switch to rollerballs in college because I always hated ballpoints. Mechanical engineering college - fountain pens were a no go. I did use fountain pens home to turn the scribbles from lectures to nicer and concise write ups at home for learning + it helped me solidify the lectures. I bought myself a "really nice" FP as a reward for finishing master's degree at age 24 - a Pelikan M200. I thought piston filler was the coolest thing I have ever seen in my life then, because all my life all I knew were fountain pens on cartridges - Pelikan royal blue 4001, of course. At the time, I thought the 150 or so € was an insane amount of money for a fountain pen.

Nowadays I can't stand either cartridges or the Pelikan 4001 royal blue ink. I don't think there's objectively anything wrong with either, I just used them exclusively for well over a decade and I'm still sick of them.

[welch]

Fascinating to read through this thread all at once.

- So Pajaro remembers the ink-jar inserts being in the top right of desks? I started kindergarten in 1953, and our new formica-and-gray desks had a plastic ink jar on the top left, or so I remember from 67 years ago.

- We printed in first and second grades, and began writing cursive in the third grade, using pencils. Every classroom had a green or black chart with example cursive upper and lower case letters stripped above the blackboard. In fourth grade, we began using ink. In the US, those grades were "elementary school". In 7th Grade, we went to Junior High School, and in 10th Grade we went to High School. (Some school districts used an older system, in which kids went to elementary school through 8th grade, and then high school in 9th through 12th grades. I think the Junior High was created to keep the puberty-rocked kids in a separate school that could handle our "awakening".)

How was, and is, the UK school system organized? German schools?

- Most of us bought our school supplies in the local drug store. A typical US Walgreens or CVS still has a school supplies aisle, although no ink, Sheaffer school pens, or plastic-handled stick pens.

- Did German kids practice printing in pencil before moving to fountain pens? What sort, or quality, of paper did you use?

- From 7th Grade onward, I used a Parker 45 that I refilled every day, in the kitchen sink, with Sheaffer Washable Black or Washable Blue-Black. Note: my parents graduated high school in 1940 and 1941, and they had many horror stories of kids ruining clothing with permanent ink. My mother insisted on washable inks, and I liked them because they washed off my hands and out of the sink with no problem. We all learned to protect our three-ring binder and school books from rain storms. Now, I almost instinctively wonder why people demand more-permanent-than-permanent inks, and seem to worry that rain drops are more likely to harm their journals than ink drops are to ruin their clothes.

- I assume that Jon S wanted to limit his fictional trip to Europe because he had to look up and report on each country he fictionally visited. Certainly would have limited me to as few countries as possible.

[INeedAFinancialAdvisor]

Now, I almost instinctively wonder why people demand more-permanent-than-permanent inks, and seem to worry that rain drops are more likely to harm their journals than ink drops are to ruin their clothes.

This may be because now due to "fast fashion" clothes are a) cheap to buy b) out of style quickly and c) cheaply made and won't likely last anyway. But lost writing is gone.

As an example: an Ocean Pacific tshirt from the early 90s would get you some weird looks if worn today. Not that i think many of them were made well enough to LAST this long.

so i think the TLDR here is: most people likely already have WAY more clothes than they need, most of them are cheaply made and easily thrown out and replaced with newer ones, therefore they care much less about them than people 60 or more years ago did.

Lets not forget that some people ALSO wanted permanence back in the day! Parker "51" ink boxes all have "DRIES ALMOST INSTANTLY - COMPLETELY PERMANENT" written on them right on the front. So as far back as 1941, SOME people must have cared more about their writing than replacing a shirt. Mom's who have to replace kids clothes were probably not the target audience, especially given the price of a "51" back then.

[pajaro]

Fascinating to read through this thread all at once.

- So Pajaro remembers the ink-jar inserts being in the top right of desks? I started kindergarten in 1953, and our new formica-and-gray desks had a plastic ink jar on the top left, or so I remember from 67 years ago.

- We printed in first and second grades, and began writing cursive in the third grade, using pencils. Every classroom had a green or black chart with example cursive upper and lower case letters stripped above the blackboard. In fourth grade, we began using ink. In the US, those grades were "elementary school". In 7th Grade, we went to Junior High School, and in 10th Grade we went to High School. (Some school districts used an older system, in which kids went to elementary school through 8th grade, and then high school in 9th through 12th grades. I think the Junior High was created to keep the puberty-rocked kids in a separate school that could handle our "awakening".)

How was, and is, the UK school system organized? German schools?

- Most of us bought our school supplies in the local drug store. A typical US Walgreens or CVS still has a school supplies aisle, although no ink, Sheaffer school pens, or plastic-handled stick pens.

- Did German kids practice printing in pencil before moving to fountain pens? What sort, or quality, of paper did you use?

- From 7th Grade onward, I used a Parker 45 that I refilled every day, in the kitchen sink, with Sheaffer Washable Black or Washable Blue-Black. Note: my parents graduated high school in 1940 and 1941, and they had many horror stories of kids ruining clothing with permanent ink. My mother insisted on washable inks, and I liked them because they washed off my hands and out of the sink with no problem. We all learned to protect our three-ring binder and school books from rain storms. Now, I almost instinctively wonder why people demand more-permanent-than-permanent inks, and seem to worry that rain drops are more likely to harm their journals than ink drops are to ruin their clothes.

- I assume that Jon S wanted to limit his fictional trip to Europe because he had to look up and report on each country he fictionally visited. Certainly would have limited me to as few countries as possible.

Clearly I should have gone to a school like yours, with the ink well at the top left corner. Alas, I do remember the ink well at the top right. It was just one thing to overcome, and I didn't realize at the time that there might have been an alternative arrangement.

[welch]

Fascinating to read through this thread all at once.

- So Pajaro remembers the ink-jar inserts being in the top right of desks? I started kindergarten in 1953, and our new formica-and-gray desks had a plastic ink jar on the top left, or so I remember from 67 years ago.

- We printed in first and second grades, and began writing cursive in the third grade, using pencils. Every classroom had a green or black chart with example cursive upper and lower case letters stripped above the blackboard. In fourth grade, we began using ink. In the US, those grades were "elementary school". In 7th Grade, we went to Junior High School, and in 10th Grade we went to High School. (Some school districts used an older system, in which kids went to elementary school through 8th grade, and then high school in 9th through 12th grades. I think the Junior High was created to keep the puberty-rocked kids in a separate school that could handle our "awakening".)

How was, and is, the UK school system organized? German schools?

- Most of us bought our school supplies in the local drug store. A typical US Walgreens or CVS still has a school supplies aisle, although no ink, Sheaffer school pens, or plastic-handled stick pens.

- Did German kids practice printing in pencil before moving to fountain pens? What sort, or quality, of paper did you use?

- From 7th Grade onward, I used a Parker 45 that I refilled every day, in the kitchen sink, with Sheaffer Washable Black or Washable Blue-Black. Note: my parents graduated high school in 1940 and 1941, and they had many horror stories of kids ruining clothing with permanent ink. My mother insisted on washable inks, and I liked them because they washed off my hands and out of the sink with no problem. We all learned to protect our three-ring binder and school books from rain storms. Now, I almost instinctively wonder why people demand more-permanent-than-permanent inks, and seem to worry that rain drops are more likely to harm their journals than ink drops are to ruin their clothes.

- I assume that Jon S wanted to limit his fictional trip to Europe because he had to look up and report on each country he fictionally visited. Certainly would have limited me to as few countries as possible.

Clearly I should have gone to a school like yours, with the ink well at the top left corner. Alas, I do remember the ink well at the top right. It was just one thing to overcome, and I didn't realize at the time that there might have been an alternative arrangement.

You are probably right, Pajaro. Since most of us were right handed, it would have been awkward to put the ink jar on the left side. With a left hand holding the paper, it would have been twisty to reach across with across with the right hand.

By the time we started with "ink pens", about 1957-58, we all used Sheaffer school pens. Sheaffer must have sent free pens, cartridges, and "get started" booklets for us, as some kind person posted here a few years ago. I never saw people use stick pens.

[fountainpenkid]

I've really enjoyed reading these histories. It's funny to see that my 4th-grade start (back in the far-gone year 2008!) aligns with the ages of many here who used them as part of schooling. I was given a "Manuscript" calligraphy set for Christmas or my birthday that year, and quickly took to it. I didn't start note-taking with them until the next year, when I found my grandmother's silver SJ in one of my dad's boxes along with a Parker Vector, and started bringing them to class; I couldn't help myself even in the face of social ostracization (my middle school classmates found it an easy tease). Maybe because of adolescent pressure, I didn't really use them exclusively until a couple years later, when I discovered FPN and dove into the whole world of fountain pen history and design headfirst.

[TFarnon]

I'm 62. When I was in kindergarten, first and second grade, I don't remember anything other than pencil. My family moved to England when I was in the third grade, and I think we still mostly used pencil, although I don't remember being penalized if I used pen. We moved to Germany when I was in the 4th grade. There, fountain pens were mandatory for everything except art and mathematics. Ball point pens were not allowed, except when we had to write over something we'd erased. They had these salty-tasting white sticks that you liked to moisten, then rubbed over the error. It lifted the fountain pen ink somehow, but made it impossible to write over it with fountain pen again. Then, and only then, were we allowed to use a ball point pen, to write over that bit of paper. It's not as if the ball point pens were very good. My dad used to bring home fistfuls of black ballpoint pens, all marked "property of U.S. government". He was an engineer. He always had pens tucked everywhere. It wasn't intentional--it's more that he just didn't empty all his pockets every day. Those pens were the worst of the worst ball point pens. The ink supply was erratic and there wasn't much of a supply to begin with.

I liked using fountain pens--I don't remember anyone using any kind other than a cartridge filler, though. And certainly no lever fillers--we would have had too much fun with those. It wasn't until gel pens came along that I found something I love for everyday and work writing. I prefer gel pens for that. Fountain pens are purely for pleasure for me now.

[ThriveToScribe]

Fascinating to read through this thread all at once.

- So Pajaro remembers the ink-jar inserts being in the top right of desks? I started kindergarten in 1953, and our new formica-and-gray desks had a plastic ink jar on the top left, or so I remember from 67 years ago.

- We printed in first and second grades, and began writing cursive in the third grade, using pencils. Every classroom had a green or black chart with example cursive upper and lower case letters stripped above the blackboard. In fourth grade, we began using ink. In the US, those grades were "elementary school". In 7th Grade, we went to Junior High School, and in 10th Grade we went to High School. (Some school districts used an older system, in which kids went to elementary school through 8th grade, and then high school in 9th through 12th grades. I think the Junior High was created to keep the puberty-rocked kids in a separate school that could handle our "awakening".)

How was, and is, the UK school system organized? German schools?

- Most of us bought our school supplies in the local drug store. A typical US Walgreens or CVS still has a school supplies aisle, although no ink, Sheaffer school pens, or plastic-handled stick pens.

- Did German kids practice printing in pencil before moving to fountain pens? What sort, or quality, of paper did you use?

- From 7th Grade onward, I used a Parker 45 that I refilled every day, in the kitchen sink, with Sheaffer Washable Black or Washable Blue-Black. Note: my parents graduated high school in 1940 and 1941, and they had many horror stories of kids ruining clothing with permanent ink. My mother insisted on washable inks, and I liked them because they washed off my hands and out of the sink with no problem. We all learned to protect our three-ring binder and school books from rain storms. Now, I almost instinctively wonder why people demand more-permanent-than-permanent inks, and seem to worry that rain drops are more likely to harm their journals than ink drops are to ruin their clothes.

- I assume that Jon S wanted to limit his fictional trip to Europe because he had to look up and report on each country he fictionally visited. Certainly would have limited me to as few countries as possible.

Clearly I should have gone to a school like yours, with the ink well at the top left corner. Alas, I do remember the ink well at the top right. It was just one thing to overcome, and I didn't realize at the time that there might have been an alternative arrangement.

I also remember the ink bottle “hole” but at the right hand side of the desk (in the early 1950s) because not only did the Good Sisters insist that we should ALL write with our RIGHT hands, it was so awkward for the “poor lefties” to attempt to write this way as they put their hands “curled”‘above the top of the paper and wrote. It NOT, their hands would drag across the slow-drying ink and mess up the paper. I recall one good Sister bringing up the point of the Right Hand of God and being the most “pleasing” way to show you were on the “right side”.
(How on EARTH can I recall such trivia and yet forget to set my alarm along with other current preoccupations?) Is my brain filled to the brim?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ThriveToScribe]

P.S. I also recall my first NICE fountain pen given to me by my best friend for 8th grade graduation: A new Parker 45 with their standard nib (M) because she knew I enjoyed writing letters overseas to my Mum’s family. I still have the pen, which has an indentation in the barrel from use. My friend had only ONE handwriting style which she never varied during her entire life because that’s what she started out with. My penmanship has (and continues ) to vary a bit according to the nib.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[An old bloke]

Fascinating to read through this thread all at once.

- So Pajaro remembers the ink-jar inserts being in the top right of desks? I started kindergarten in 1953, and our new formica-and-gray desks had a plastic ink jar on the top left, or so I remember from 67 years ago.

- We printed in first and second grades, and began writing cursive in the third grade, using pencils. Every classroom had a green or black chart with example cursive upper and lower case letters stripped above the blackboard. In fourth grade, we began using ink. In the US, those grades were "elementary school". In 7th Grade, we went to Junior High School, and in 10th Grade we went to High School. (Some school districts used an older system, in which kids went to elementary school through 8th grade, and then high school in 9th through 12th grades. I think the Junior High was created to keep the puberty-rocked kids in a separate school that could handle our "awakening".)

How was, and is, the UK school system organized? German schools?

- Most of us bought our school supplies in the local drug store. A typical US Walgreens or CVS still has a school supplies aisle, although no ink, Sheaffer school pens, or plastic-handled stick pens.

- Did German kids practice printing in pencil before moving to fountain pens? What sort, or quality, of paper did you use?

- From 7th Grade onward, I used a Parker 45 that I refilled every day, in the kitchen sink, with Sheaffer Washable Black or Washable Blue-Black. Note: my parents graduated high school in 1940 and 1941, and they had many horror stories of kids ruining clothing with permanent ink. My mother insisted on washable inks, and I liked them because they washed off my hands and out of the sink with no problem. We all learned to protect our three-ring binder and school books from rain storms. Now, I almost instinctively wonder why people demand more-permanent-than-permanent inks, and seem to worry that rain drops are more likely to harm their journals than ink drops are to ruin their clothes.

- I assume that Jon S wanted to limit his fictional trip to Europe because he had to look up and report on each country he fictionally visited. Certainly would have limited me to as few countries as possible.

Welch,

Get Rosemary Sassoon's book, Handwriting of the Twentieth Century and all shall be revealed.


As for ink well placement, my recollection is they were always on the right even in the two seat desks in which I, a leftie, laboured for some years.

[silverlifter]

As for ink well placement, my recollection is they were always on the right even in the two seat desks in which I, a leftie, laboured for some years.

Yep: right hand side so you didn't have to reach the potentially dripping nib across the page (and end up getting caned for the infraction)...

[An old bloke]

As for ink well placement, my recollection is they were always on the right even in the two seat desks in which I, a leftie, laboured for some years.

Yep: right hand side so you didn't have to reach the potentially dripping nib across the page (and end up getting caned for the infraction)...

Unless of course you were lefthanded as I was.

[christof]

I started with a Pelikano at the age of 6 at school and never used someting else than a FP or a pencil until today. At the age of 16, I got interested in Design and history of FP and started collecting. My first vintage FP was a Parker "51" and I am still in love with this model.
C.

[silverlifter]

As for ink well placement, my recollection is they were always on the right even in the two seat desks in which I, a leftie, laboured for some years.

Yep: right hand side so you didn't have to reach the potentially dripping nib across the page (and end up getting caned for the infraction)...

Unless of course you were lefthanded as I was.

Using your left hand was grounds for caning as well!