As I sit here typing my first blog entry on an Apple MacBook Air notebook computer, I have to reflect upon my personal history. I have enjoyed writing all of my life, but never really pursued it other than as an adjunct to schooling or work. The exceptions being letters written to family and friends. And, while I am fascinated by history and have greatly admired the diaries kept by individuals in even the most dire of circumstances, it was something I only tried. Dabbled in, at best. I think somewhere around the 4th grade, I decided I wanted to write a novel. Obviously that didn’t go very far, because I’m not famous for having written “the great American novel” at that young age…
Maybe it was the available tools that were the problem – I remember when my father came home from work all excited about the new pen he had! He was in the Air Force and we were living in what was then West Germany. The Air Force had just approved the use of ballpoint pens for official documents! Up to that point, anything official had to be signed with a fountain pen because the ballpoint was too unreliable! At least that’s the way I remember it…
I do remember a Schaeffer fountain pen that I wish I still had! It was different. It had a “hooded” point and only the very end protruded from the covering – ideal for someone like me as I have always gripped both pen and pencil very close to the point! If you try that with a standard fountain pen, you’ll soon have ink-coated fingers. And believe me, that ink doesn’t come off easily!
As a senior in high school with college plans, and knowing that meant writing papers, I did one of the smartest things I think I ever did – I took typing… Typing and shorthand were, at that time, considered classes taken only by girls (they weren’t “young ladies” back then) who were going to do secretarial work. Boys just didn’t take those electives. Uncharacteristically, there were probably a half dozen guys in my typing class – those planning to go to college. We had manual typewriters, but we all got a chance to periodically rotate to one of the 10 expensive electric typewriters. In college after getting hand-cramps from taking notes, I wished I had also taken shorthand!
So here I now sit, leaned back in my chair, keyboard on my lap, watching as letters magically appear (and disappear when I hit “delete”) on a monitor three feet away using a tool with more computing power than an Apollo spacecraft on its lunar journey…and what I miss, is the elegance and feel of a nice fountain pen! The ink just flows onto the paper so smoothly! Especially one with a gold nib that wears and adapts to your hand much like a fine pair of shoes conforms to your feet. Now if I could just find a fountain pen that writes on my Samsung Note tablet…
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