My tiny little excuse for the limited posting this week.

I have mentioend in the past that life sometimes gets in the way of blogging (and vice-versa) and I have tried to mostly be the pen guy and not blather on about my personal life...but here is the reason for the lack of posting this week. Twitter has all the juicy details and I will be back in the swing on Monday with a fresh week of posts. Everyone enjoy their weekend and thanks for all the kind words so far.

Seth

Parker Vacumatic Pencil 1947

I have said it before... but George S. Parker... "You complete me and you had me at Vacumatic." (OK, I am done with the Jerry McGuire quotes.) If we were being invaded and I had to grab some of my belongings and head into the hills for a few years to live off of twigs and berries, I would make sure I had this pencil with me.



62 years ago a person (or a machine) put a date stamp on this pencil and I am positive that they had no idea that some dude would be sitting up at 11:40 on a Tuesday night posting to his blog about his love for this particular pencil, but for proof... here's how the interview would go:

Questioner: "Sir, did you have any idea that in 2009 some dude would be sitting up at 11:40 on a Tuesday night posting to his blog on his computer about his love for this particular pencil?"

Parker Employee: "Uhhh, computer?"

Questioner: "Exactly."

Well there you are folks.

My pencil really wants to have a matching Vacumatic fountain twin, but this is as close as I can come to making it happy. These two are a few years apart but they hang out every now and then. There is a difference between getting better with time and staying consistently strong over time and this definitely falls into that strong category.

Good pencil.

I wish these days were still around

OK, I am in my thirties so I was not around for this kind of stuff, but apparently-there was a welder in Pennsylvania that was giving away fountain pens to promote his livelihood. I know this was probably considered normal back in the day, but I wish I could have been around back in those days. Even the lowest cost fountain pens right now would probably put promoting your company out of reach.

I just think that it is kind of interesting that not that long ago a welder was able to give away fountain pens to his customers and now most companies (even the largest high tech firms) give away the cheapest,worst writing pens that they can find to represent themselves.

After a cleaning, rinse and re-sac, this pens is still very functional. There's a little bulge in the middle of the plastic and the cap looks like it was put a little to close to a welding job, but it works and it has some history to it. So...Harry Anderson, thank you. You sir, probably have left this world, but your pen remains in good hands.