Good: My father called me last night asking for recommendations about a good fountain pen. He said that my recent acuisitions in pens and ink and my blogging about it, has convinced him to get back to them and leave the ballpoints far behind. He wants a relatively inexpensive medium nib, that would be a good fit for him. I suggested a Waterman Philéas. Not expensive, good and reliable and big enough for his hand.

Bad: My father confirmed that his Parker 51 and his two old Sheaffers (probably Crest Lever Fillers if I remember correctly) are long gone. He threw them out. ARGH!

I wonder how often this happens. We had the same experience in our family (Father was an FPer, then let it go, then I started, he got re-interested,...) We should perhaps take a poll...Who was responsible for your illness!
Kevin

Our worse nightmare in the FP world. Sorry to hear that.

Hurts, that's what it does!

I commiserate w/ your pain. My father went through _3_ Parker 51s from his childhood through his service years until he took up using ballpoints.

William

Threw them out? AGGGHHHHHHH!

My stepfather's desk had two FPs and a bottle of Skrip blue in it. I have no clue what they were. One was a pale jade green marbled colored lever filler with a gold nib. Knowing my stepfather, we were not poor, and high-quality handwriting was a big deal with him, it was probably a top-notch pen. They went in the trash when my mom moved.

Congrats on luring your dad back into the fold.

My father off handedly said he noticed his handwriting looks worse now than it use to, he thinks because of ball points. My father's handwriting is worse than more doctors' I know!!!! So it can't be a bad thing I've brought him back into the fold. Maybe I'll be able to read him now.

I recently asked my dad (who is 77) if he has any old fountain pens stashed someplace. He has used a Cross BP and Pencil set as long as I can remember, but I figured at some point he was a FP user given his age. He said he long ago got rid of them, though both he and my mom remembered they had some lever-filling ones at some point. They couldn't recall what type of pens they were. My dad mentioned that they had rubber sacs in them that probably would have gone bad by now even if he still had the pens. He seemed genuinely surprised that you could get those sacs replaced today, and that there was still an active market for FPs. My 73 year-old mom asked, "are fountain pens a new fad these days?" That made me chuckle a bit.

After my Dad passed away early this year I found my grandfather's old 51 aero in in one of my Dad's desk drawers. It writes like a dream. I miss my Dad, but it's nice to have that pen! I also found some old dip pens, one with a music nib (my grandfather was a composer, among other things.)

Don

Lovely.

You are very fortunate and I envy you.

You know, I think they are. There seem to be a lot of younger users popping up, and the salesman at my favorite campus bookstore says they're having trouble keeping up with the demand for Sheaffer Javelins and Agios.

-- Brian

I personally would like to think that fountain pens are making a comeback amongst younger generations.

Who is responsible for making me a fountainpenaholic...?

My dad. Well...yeah. My dad. He was the person who bought me my first fountain pen. And he's still buying more for me. My current collection is five. In about a week, we're going off to get pen #6!! A Parker Duofold (Hopefully!!)