A Sterling Tradition. . .

The current iteration of the sterling silver pen and pencil set by Cross, available via Amazon for a reasonable price.

Some people are fans of interesting and unique fountain pens. For instance, my wife, The Grand Duchess, owns and uses several routinely.

I, on the other hand, have never quite gotten the hang of them and prefer to spare my attire from possible mishaps with a temperamental ink reservoir. Far better, in my view, to use more reliable, though nevertheless interesting models of ballpoint pens and occasionally mechanical pencils. My collection is small, but includes a few such items by Cross and Parker, used each week, plus a couple of no name varieties, picked up here and there, which don't necessarily scream cheap conference giveaways.

Imagine my delight a week or so ago when I unearthed a long-forgotten sterling silver ballpoint pen and pencil set by Cross in a dresser drawer. These were given to me by good ol' Mom way back in June of 1985 when I graduated from high school. The black ink refill and pencil leads still function after all this time. That comes, I guess, from keeping the pen and pencil in their case largely unused for almost 34 years.

Cross pens and pencils have a bit of history in my family. My father, on completing stockbroker school in Manhattan during Spring 1974, purchased himself such a set -- a bit more elegant and refined than, say, a Papermate or disposable Bic -- as he geared up for a career in the financial sector and moved even further afield into Brooks Bros. territory. Not too long after, he presented my maternal grandfather (a Southwick man) with a similar pen and pencil set.

It seems that the apple didn't fall too far from the tree at least insofar as writing instruments are concerned. After a bit of polish this afternoon with a jewel cloth to remove the tarnish of three plus decades, my own pen and pencil are ready to go inside my inner left jacket pocket tomorrow morning. A sterling family tradition continues.

-- Heinz-Ulrich

Comments

Up North Style. . .

Bad Dad makes a friend. YMP and Bad Dad on the shores of Lake Michigan. Or was that Crystal Lake? The Grand Duchess takes a selfie in her kayak. How NOT to impress the girls sunning themselves along the river. YMP and Bad Dad kayaking on the Platte River headed toward Loon Lake. J ust back from a week in Northern Michigan in a charming and spacious house on the banks of the Betsie River outside of Thompsonville. A largely pleasant seven days despite some challenging episodes with the Young Master, who has picked up some very questionable habits and language from his friends in the 8th Grade during the school year just ended. But otherwise, we enjoyed ourselves and contemplated remaining for a few days longer since the house was available. In the end, we decided to return home as planned originally since neither my wife, nor I wanted to spend the remaining days chained to our computers in Zoom meetings from our vacation destination. I actually managed to leave the laptop and ip

Mid-June Thursday Style. . .

A nother pretty typical variation on the theme for late spring, summer, and very early fall. I'm a huge fan of Madras and have several such shirts in the seasonal rotation. Lightweight, exceedingly comfortable, and even dressy when pressed and tucked in, which is the usual way of things here at Totleigh in the Wold. Now, if I had my druthers, I'd still rather be skiing the trails in the upper half of "The Mitten" (of Michigan), in the Upper Peninsula, or Ontario. But summers ain't so bad either, and I'd look pretty funny walking around in cross-country ski attire during June. -- Heinz-Ulrich

A Lazy Saturday at the End of June. . .

A sleepy first half of the weekend here at Totleigh. Warmer and quite humid ahead of an approaching cool front here in Mid-Michigan. Perfect for yet another pair of chino shorts an a seersucker shirt -- tucked in of course -- with the usual leather deck shoes and ribbon belt. Otherwise, not much accomplished beyond a page or so of writing and monkeying around with audio settings for an upcoming podcast episode. However, I was not completely useless yesterday! I made a huge fruit salad for dinner, which the Grand Duchess and I enjoyed a short while later at the table on the back porch. The Young Master, as is his wont on Saturday evenings, took his dinner on a tray in the TV room upstairs where he whiled away a couple of hours on Flight Simulator, flying some sort of commercial airliner to some destination across the Atlantic or Pacific. I would have loved that sort of technology at about nine or 10 way back during the late 1970s, aka The Stone Age. As it is, my sister and

Classic Style

Search This Blog