Jake must be one of the aforementioned whippersnappers. How do you think Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence? A few letters (or words) at a time! And with sentences long enough to choke most modern school teachers and editors. (“When in the course of human events….”)
While I never knew Jefferson (that’s a joke, Jake), when I was in 4th grade and it was time to learn cursive writing, out came the ink bottles that fit in the hole in the top of every school desk. And out came the metal pen nibs that fit in the plastic or wooden pen handles.
Dip and write, dip and write, dip and write. Messy, messy, messy. Of course fountain pens had existed for a long time, but the school wasn’t going to supply them, let alone that recent invention the ballpoint pen, which were then almost as messy and blotchy as the dip pens. The existence of felt-tips and gel-writers is almost as amazing to me as laptop computers or the jet-packs we were promised and never received.
Our teachers kept a community ink bottle near her desk and we had to get up to fill it. Cut down on spills. Our pens had a lever on the side that drew the ink up into a bladder in the pen. Later they came out with cartdridge pens that you bought and put a cartdrige in your pen. I still have all my pens and still use them, usually the cartgridge type. We wern’t allowed to use ball points throughout my time in school, and I graduated in 1964. I wasn’t allowed to use my real name either because Indians in a public school had to have an “American” name.
davidf42 about 15 years ago
Bottle of ink? Fountain pen? Dipping an ordinary pen into a bottle of ink? I wonder how many of today’s readers even understand this strip?
Frodo59 about 15 years ago
Think of it as a history lesson for the whippersnappers!
jppjr about 15 years ago
Ahhh fountain pens…I use one today…one I used in grammar school over 50 years ago!!!
pschearer Premium Member about 15 years ago
Jake must be one of the aforementioned whippersnappers. How do you think Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence? A few letters (or words) at a time! And with sentences long enough to choke most modern school teachers and editors. (“When in the course of human events….”)
While I never knew Jefferson (that’s a joke, Jake), when I was in 4th grade and it was time to learn cursive writing, out came the ink bottles that fit in the hole in the top of every school desk. And out came the metal pen nibs that fit in the plastic or wooden pen handles.
Dip and write, dip and write, dip and write. Messy, messy, messy. Of course fountain pens had existed for a long time, but the school wasn’t going to supply them, let alone that recent invention the ballpoint pen, which were then almost as messy and blotchy as the dip pens. The existence of felt-tips and gel-writers is almost as amazing to me as laptop computers or the jet-packs we were promised and never received.
Tsali-Queyi about 15 years ago
Our teachers kept a community ink bottle near her desk and we had to get up to fill it. Cut down on spills. Our pens had a lever on the side that drew the ink up into a bladder in the pen. Later they came out with cartdridge pens that you bought and put a cartdrige in your pen. I still have all my pens and still use them, usually the cartgridge type. We wern’t allowed to use ball points throughout my time in school, and I graduated in 1964. I wasn’t allowed to use my real name either because Indians in a public school had to have an “American” name.
Sherlock Watson about 15 years ago
Jeff is as excited as the man who discovered that mirrors can be used upside-down.
ringo12147 about 15 years ago
Maybe not one of the easier to understand cartoons.