More on my father

My niece reminded me of something my father did with his grandchildren...

You know many grandparents take their grandchildren to The Dollar Store, or the Teddy Bear store, or Chucky Cheese's. Well, my dad took his grandchildren to the stationery store -- you know Staples or Office Depot. His favorite supply store was Jersey Business Supply in Somerdale. My father had a thing for pens, pencils, and paper. Unfortunately, that love was handed down to his daughter.

I love the smell of office-supply stores. I love to find new pens. I love to use automatic pencils. Back in my youth there was only one kind -- Esterbrook. I had two of those Esterbrook automatic pencils but when we moved to our home in Northern Kentucky, they disappeared. And they are irreplaceable. They are not made any more and buying them at an antique store is not an option.

I love to buy paper -- now it's paper for my scrapbooks. I love to buy files, things to carry files in, paper to put in the files, new-style duo-tang folders, etc. Just like dad.

He kept a stock of pens and pencils on his "desk" at the dining room table and was always willing to hand one of these "prized" articles to visitors -- meaning his children and grandchildren.

When we moved him to NC we had boxes and boxes of unused pens and pencils to divide among ourselves, leaving him enough to last him for what could have been another 10 years of life, if he lived as long as Uncle Harry.

He also had great pencil sharpeners -- not the crank kind, the kind that you stick the pencil in and turn the pencil against the blade. He found a kind where you could replace the blade when it wore out. He always had very, very sharp pencils and I have one of his Bibles in which he wrote with pencil. So fine, so small, yet readable.

I have one of those sharpeners and it is still functioning. I don't have any replacement blades, but so far I haven't need one.

He also loved fountain pens. He wasn't partial to ball-points or felt-tips, although he had many in his "pen collection." He liked the kind of fountain pens that you had to fill yourself. I think it was the thickness and weight of the pen that he enjoyed. I know my arthritic hands -- like his -- prefer a heavier, thicker pen -- easier to write with.