Bliss by Harry Bliss for October 29, 2021

Grandma must hate his parent(s).

As a gift, that’s right up there with drum set.

Good grief! Where’d she manage to find one of those?

On line Shopping at it’s best ! Now to work on that eye and hand control thing ;-)

Thanks, Grandma. My parents loved it as much as the wood burning set you got me last year.

If “Peanuts” were still around, he could be introduced as Charlie Brown’s pen pal…

I remember buying school supplies and needing fountain pen ink cartridges.

He has an ink bottle. That one’s more for calligraphy.

I’ve been a collector of fountain pens, inks and fine paper for 40+ years. Many a fine hour has been spent with a pen in hand.

This echoes an old Peanuts cartoon.

I’m sure his parents are thrilled.

Very first … and only!

By the time I came along, ballpoint pens were the norm. I recall, at age 8 or so, finding an old fountain pen that still had ink. I was amazed at the thing, and went trotting out to show my mom this wonderful brand new thing I’d found. It made my handwriting look even better than a ballpoint did. Of course, my mom popped that bubble right away. It was older than I was! She did let me keep it and helped me find ink for it. I wrote really long letters to my older sister who was overseas, because it was truly fun to write with the thing. She said she was really glad I’d found it; she loved getting mail from home!

It will surprise young readers but fountain pens were the only alternative to pencils until the early 1960’s when the ballpoint pen came into mainstream use when Bic introduced its product with the slogan, “Writes The First Time, Every Time!” It truly revolutionized the world by putting an end to all the problems and hazards of fountain pens as illustrated in this comic. Ruining a shirt with a leaky fountain pen was not a source of humor.

Hmm…I went to grammar school in the ‘50s. We started with dip pens and inkwells. Seriously. We weren’t allowed to use ballpoints until fifth grade. I never managed the ballpoint. I’ve used a fountain pen all my life. I’m reasonably clumsy but have never had trouble with blots and smears. For me it’s much easier to write legibly with a fountain pen. Ballpoints have almost zero paper feel and slide all over. Running out of ink is the only drawback to a fountain pen.

God, I remember those leaky pens.

Mom wants to thank you too…….