Sunday, November 07, 2010

My Sheaffer

My Sheaffer

I don't know whether school children do it these days but during my younger school days, we were made to write the proper way. Not only do we have to follow every curves and bends of the alphabets but we were made to write with a fountain pen. Everyone of us keep at least one fountain pen in the pencil box. Do children these days keep fountain pens?
We love to write with fountain pens. Those days (read: year 1963-1967), we still don't see ball-point pens. We only have fountain pens and pencils. With fountain pens, the ink came along. Black and wet ink. When children have black and wet ink, obvious things happened. My skirt was always blotched with black ink, my hands always stained black. This happened to my friends as well. We used to fight with ink. We point the pen nib forcefully towards the intended culprit. Ho,ho you get a polka-dot face that will last till the end of the school hours.
The pen above was a gift I received 2 years ago from a loving friend. For 2 years, I went all over the island finding for the ink. Yes, I can't get black ink for a simple reason, because there is no shop selling fountain pen on this island (I don't know about other places in Japan).
In the end, after more than 2 years, I settled for calligraphy ink, those that are used in Japan kanji calligraphy. From the tube, I poured the ink into a blueberry-jam bottle.
I love writing with fountain pen. Writing with normal pencil would hurt my fingers. Pencils are too slim for my fingers to hold. Writing with ball-point paint is mere boredom, somehow I can't get my inspiration ticking. Of course, I write long manuscript in my Windows Words but there are times when my romantic self urge me to write with a fountain pen.
You should hear the sound of the nib scratching the papers, you should feel the ink trickling down the papers and best of all smell the ink on your fingers.
Normally, after writing with a fountain pen and after satisfying my romantic needs, I have stained writing hand and need to go to the washroom.

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3 comments:

  1. I always envy my dad's handwriting because my own handwriting seems to indicate that I want to become a doctor. LOL

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  2. Salam Puan:

    Tak boleh lupa teguran ayah saya waktu saya sekolah menengah, tulisan saya buruk, kena baiki nanti cikgu tak boleh baca.. :)

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  3. salam lina dan ummufatihah,

    Sejarah menulis banyak berkait dgn bapa masing2. Saya pun sama.
    Berlatih mencantikan no. 2 dan 5 berkali-kali.
    No. 2 macam Z,
    No. 5 macam S.

    Sekarang masih sama hehehe.

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