When I was in the fifth grade, I dared to be different. Most of the other kids in my class were using ballpoint pens. Not me though. My choice of writing instrument was a fountain pen. A classy Parker fountain pen.
It was one of those fountain pens where you inserted a small, frosted plastic tube filled with ink (aka, the cartridge) into the barrel of the pen, and then screwed the nib onto the barrel. The inside end of the nib would penetrate the cartridge so that the ink in the cartridge’s reservoir would flow down to the nib’s point when pressed onto the paper. It was a magnificent piece of engineering.
And to further differentiate myself, I used turquoise ink. Not blue, not black. Turquoise!
My homework and my in-class papers were easily recognizable because of the color of the ink I used. No one else in my class used turquoise ink. No one else dared used turquoise ink.
I was a weird kid in the fifth grade. Fortunately, I had grown out of my turquoise fountain pen phase by the time I entered the sixth grade.
Written for today’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt from Linda G. Hill. The challenge this week was to write a post using the word “ink.”
This, That, and the Other 
Being in a Catholic school we had no choice but to use a fountain pen..
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I went to public schools, so fountain pens were relatively rare.
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I once read a report on how the public universities before the forceful privatisation were doing an amazing job on American landscape. They were premiere institutes providing quality education at affordable prices. Now let just say Americans kill their growth by suffocating these temples of educations.. You should write a post on it Sensei..
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Why do you always tell other people what they should write posts about? Did you see a question mark?
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Well Sensei is a Economics major.. He is good with stats.. He is a product of public education.. Given his timeline he saw these changes. I want people to not be linear. Sensei in a serious post. Guess I should stop being so annoying and assertive.. Right Jim..
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Good idea. Betsy DeVos, Trump’s Secretary of Education is well on her way to “suffocating these temples of [public] education.”
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I finally, after almost four decades out of school, threw my Parker fountain pen away. I don’t even know if they still make them or the cartridges but I did enjoy writing with it. Nice post.
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Thanks. I lost mine long ago, but I do think they still make pens like that. You can still buy the ink cartridges on eBay.
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You were quite the rebel in fifth grade.
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I got beat up a lot in the fifth grade, too.
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I would have used turquoise if allowed. For us, it was blue or black, no exceptions.
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Apparently my elementary school wasn’t as strict on ink color option as was yours.
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Yep, there were nuns with rulers! Now that was strict!!! 🙂
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Yay! That color ink and those cartridge fountain pens were my favorites, too. I think it was in 5th grade when we got to use actual ink pens, and all my papers were in that pretty ink. 🙂
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Yeah, I think it may have been too pretty for a fifth grade boy!
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No, I think it is great that you ‘dared to be different’, as you say. 🙂
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