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Like some of you my first pen was an Esterbrook fountain pen. These were great pens available at any drug store or stationary store. They came in variety of great colors and had a super wide selection of nib types. Not just fine, medium or broad but all kinds of special widths and obliques for left handed people. I don't remember how much they cost, but they were inexpensive, good writing and attractive ......... a triumph of American mass production and design. I probably got mine first one as a hand-me-down from my older sister.

Ofcourse, in school we began our adventures in handwriting with a dip pen and an inkwell built into the desk ( believe it or not this was the 1950's in Pasadena, CA). It's no wonder that graduation to a fountain pen was a time that you knew you had arrived on a new plateau in life.

I don't remember when ball points began to be used. I think at first they were quite expensive. I know many of my teachers would not accept papers written in ballpoint but require work to be handed in to be written with an ink pen. Ofcourse, running out of ink in class was an ever present evil ........ how come the girls never seemed to run out?

By the time I got to college the Parker T-ball Jotter had become my writing instrument of choice and my fountain pen used only for special correspondence: love letters, asking the folks to send money and Thankyou notes. Long distance phone calls were too expensive and students were just beginning to get their own typewriters.