May 25, 2016

I need a pen.

That may not sound like much of a problem, after all, I have a box full of pens. But....

The problem is that I have small handwriting, so anything that leaves a large line just looks like ink blobs on the page with only ascenders and descenders to hint at what the word may be. When I first discovered mechanical pencils with 0.5mm lead, I was happy that I finally had something that wrote finely enough for me. Unfortunately, schoolwork often had to be passed in written in ink.

I struggled with ballpoint pens, looking for one that had a fine enough tip and reliable ink flow. Did I mention I also have a very light hand and don't press hard on the paper?  For a while, I even tried fountain pens - they certainly wrote wet enough.

Eventually I tried fine tip ballpoint pens, but they needed me to press a little harder to write without skipping. Of course, using cheap paper for school also meant that the pen would pick up paper fibers and develop a blobby look on the page, or worse, leave an ink hairball.

By High School, I had settled on Parker pens as my go-to writing tool. My only complaint was that I would sometimes sit on them, and break the plastic barrel. So, in 1979, I bought a stainless steel Parker with gold trim. Unlike other pens that had a button on top, this one was cap actuated. At last, I had a pen that I truly enjoyed using and owning.

That pen got me through High School, University, and running a business. Except now, 37 years later, I seem to have worn it out. The cap won't stay on, often falling off and allowing the spring to pop free. The gold has worn away from the clip, but the stainless steel barrel still looks good!

I suppose I could just look online and find an exact replacement. Except, it wouldn't really be an exact replacement - it would be a new pen, that just happened to be like my old pen.  I have looked, and it appears that the closest I can find is a Parker Flighter ballpoint. At this writing, I could get one around $90.

I'm not sure I want to replace it with one that looks the same.  After all, I have managed to hang on to this one for nearly forty years! Somehow, I would feel like I was betraying an old friend - one that lived in my pocket on nearly a daily basis for that long.

So, I think it's time to find my next pen - the one that will live in my pocket for (hopefully) the next forty years. Online research, here I come.

Oh, and that box full of pens I have? The result of pens being tried, or left behind by others, or acquired while in business.  Some have company names on them, some were 'won' in the game of 'can I steal this pen from the salesman?' And all of them, very cheap.