Read the above comments with great fascination
At my school there was no pen pecking order, almost all wrote with P61’s or P51’s
Personally I like the P61 better, it was rather more stylish
Read the above comments with great fascination
At my school there was no pen pecking order, almost all wrote with P61’s or P51’s
Personally I like the P61 better, it was rather more stylish
proteus (October 28th, 2021)
I like both P51 and P61. The P61 capillary filler is interesting and different.
Where I went to school in the 1960s mosr used Sheaffer cartridge pens.
proteus (October 28th, 2021)
My school actually made us use Platignum school pens (the blue ones with the weird-shaped caps), which they provided, helpfully "broken in" by several generations of equally heavy-handed neophytes before us. The emphasis was rather definitely on "broken". How I can look an FP in the nib after that introduction is beyond me.
As to the P25 and Proteus' inability to "get" it, I find I appreciate it more when I remember it was designed by the great Sir Kenneth Grange, and thus is part of a design legacy that encompasses, well, basically everything from the Intercity 125 train to the Kenwood Chef food mixer. Like many of his designs, it is actually designed and thus fit for the job. He's just never really done pretty.
In the words of Paul Simon, you can call me Al.
In the 5th and 6th grades in a West Roxbury parochial school in Mass., the school provided Scripto fountain pens, with squeeze converters with rubber sacs. This was 1958 to 1960. I still have one of these. Still writes. I rarely use it. We moved to the Daytona Beach, Florida, area in 1960. Used Sheaffer cartridge pens there. Also ballpoints. I used ballpoints until graduating from college. 1970. The draft. Went into the USAF. Easier basic training in OTS: run a mile in 8 minutes and march around. Bought my midnight blue Parker 51, just like my dad's 51. Still using that 51. Best pen I ever used.
……….fascinating reading, gentlemen.
Scrawler, grainweevil & pajaro
Thank you.
Proteus, thank you for the beautiful picture of the Parker 61. That color captures the spirit of the time.
Scrawler (October 28th, 2021)
Those rollerball pens write like a charm and unfortunately are underappreciated
Nice example you got there!
Unix is user-friendly ; it's just picky about who it's friends are -
Wow! Fine pens for school-kids.
I grew up using fountain pens. Got my first in 4th grade (US) which was about 1957 or 1958. Most of us used Sheaffer cartridge-filling school pens, which I think the company gave our elementary school. I remember seeing racks of Wearevers and maybe Esterbrooks in People's Drug Store or the local Kresge 5&10. In late 1960, I was given a Parker 45.
I don't think anyone ever had a Parker 51 or Parker 61. Those were pens for grownups. For comparison, my P-45 was about $4.98 in 1960, and about that time the 51 and 61 were about $12 or $15. The Sheaffer PfM was about the same price as the 51 and 61.
proteus (December 4th, 2021)
I still have and write daily with the 51 that my Grandad gave me when I was going int the 4th grade at 60 years ago... got me through High School and College as well... when I started working it got retired for several decades as work progressed through; 4 page carbon and eventually carbonless incident reports that had to be done in "all uppercase block print" then on to electric typewritten multi-pagers ( unless you were too busy to get back to the station) and on to computers in the office and finally computers in our cars. Since retiring the 51 is OUT of retirement along with some other pens.
[ Dove Grey with gold-filled cap and blue diamond vacumatic. Still not sure why Charlie thought a 10 year old deserved that]
welch,
Read your rely with interest.
I always thought that the P45's were vastly under estimated.
They are very clever pens.
Have a few trays of them - attached two images - the first one is mine, the other is not
Michaelcj
It is very pleasing to hear that your grandad’s 51 is now out of retirement.
Th P45 is still my go to pen; a gray was the one my mom gave me to start 3rd grade which I used all the way through grade school, and I got a few more over the years (Plus my dad's flighter)
I even gave one to each of my kids to get them started with FPs.
The design is clever, easy to clean, disassemble and switch nibs and the nibs are great for everyday note taking and writing.
I have several colors, plus flighters, I wish I had one of those harlequins!
Last edited by titrisol; December 14th, 2021 at 05:40 PM.
Unix is user-friendly ; it's just picky about who it's friends are -
Back in the day...........when I finally left school......I used to attended some office meetings of about 12 people.
There they all sat with their biros...........
I brought out my P80 Red Harlequin, it did cut a certain dash.
After most of these meetings at least 5 of them wanted to look at my pen.............
................Many people have no idea what they want until they actually see it.
I always thought it was statement.
Just a reflection of the past...............
Last edited by proteus; December 5th, 2021 at 01:30 PM.
The P-45 is the best "starter pen", even now. Sells for about $30 on EBay for the simple plastic body / lustraloy cap versions. The classy models are more expensive, of course, and, yes, some EBay sellers think that the 45 is "vintage" and should be priced like a P-51...
welch / titrisol or anyone else………..
I would be very interested to see any images that you would care to offer.
Have always liked looking at other's Parker pens.
Just nosy I quess………
titrisol (December 11th, 2021)
For those interested......
On the subject of P45's ........
Whilst researching, I stumbled into a metallurgical engineer who worked at Newhaven during the very late 90's and up until they closed.
Bought two interesting versions of a Harlequin Jotter, prototypes - both are reverse patterns made at Meru, which were later finished ( polished ) at Newhaven.
This was the completed pattern Parker tried to made in 1980/81
The paler shields are perfect - perfect etching - the shields are a different size and reversed
I believe only 12 were made, 6 were the gold clip versions.
All Jotters, no FP's
Personally I thought they were a work of art.
Last edited by proteus; December 10th, 2021 at 02:21 PM.
titrisol (December 11th, 2021)
Wow! A knockout! What a pattern!
proteus (December 12th, 2021)
Let me see what I can do, at the moment I only have a picture of my dad's GT flighter
Parker45GT-2 by titrisol, on Flickr
I'll add more pictures to my FP album
Unix is user-friendly ; it's just picky about who it's friends are -
titrisol,
Many thanks for taking the time to show your dads GT Flighter,
Clearly it writes well
Oh...I like your handwriting style..........mine is a tad more flowerly
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