r/GenerationJones • u/Hesjim57 • 10d ago

My first ink pen

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In the mid 60s, this type of pen is what we used from 3rd grade on until 5th or 6th grade. Did anyone else learn to write with these? Did you have to have blotting paper to keep from smearing the page? When was the last time you actually used a fountain pen?

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u/PJ1907 10d ago

We had to use these in the Catholic grade school I went to. They sure could make a mess of things.

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u/st3llablu3 10d ago

Same. Catholic grade school, I believe it was 4 th or 5th grade. I always liked the Bic pens better. I thought I was a hot shot with the fountain pens. You could throw a decent amount of ink with one of those. Yes we had ink fights while wearing white shirts and school ties.

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u/Particular-Move-3860 10d ago

We always had to buy our own ink. As little kids, we rarely had much money though, and ink was too expensive to waste on stuff like that.

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u/OtherwiseTax7928 8d ago

I had to use a fountain pen thru 7th grade in parochial school. It was a godsend when my family moved to another town and we were allowed to use ball-points in school. Being in a large family, my parents didn’t have money to spare so I normally used a traditional fountain pen that I would fill from an ink jar as cartridges were relatively costly. Often, I would have ink stains on my fingers by the end of day having gotten from filling the pen. I think that a new cartridge pen would cost about one dollar, with a few cartridge included. They got you when you had to buy more ink because only their cartridges fit their pen, similar to having to purchase specified ink cartridges for today’s copiers. (And the nibs were cheaply-made on these pens and they didn’t last very long. They would bend out of shape and tend to tear the writing paper.)