Parker 51 for Father's Day
I remember my first fountain pen today, on Father's Day, though celebrations of such Days are not part of my personal calendar. I was 16, I think, when my father - now long dead- gave me a Parker 51 - black with a silver cap. I remember the smooth, sleek, black lucite body, and the hooded nib, and the bottle of blue Quink ink that came with it. It was the aerometric version and I used to enjoy dipping it into the bottle of ink to fill it, and it wrote smoothly - a grown-up pen for me, for at 16 I was deemed a grown-up by my father. Did I ever get to say thank-you? My mind was not on fountain pens at the time and I lost my Parker 51 and it was replaced and I lost it again. And some years later I lost my father too, who has had an unhappy life and was met with an unhappy death. He was never replaced.
When I have a paper (sometimes even a tissue) and pen, I always sketch something. One day I realized that this habit I inherited from my dad!
ReplyDeleteThey always inspire us, being who we are now.
Thanks for the great post.
My Dad kept a nice desk rig, in part a remnant of his early career as a government bureaucrat. One pen I recall was a lever-fill Sheaffer. He enjoyed, as I do, the office bric-a-brac: Noesting paper clamps, mucilage, ledgers for his contracting business.
ReplyDeleteThe Parker 51 is . . . very nice. (I'm not an owner.) The Hero 330 knock-off I use reminds me somewhat of those artists' renditions of space ships on the covers of 1930s and 1940s science fiction pulp magazines. Jack/USA
Gave a pelikan for Father’s Day 2 years ago and it is totally under-utilised…!
ReplyDeleteanyway, your html says .sg so you are from Singapore, do join us, we—Singapore Fountain Pen Lovers—have a facebook group!