My name is Shawn Dryer. I am a 43 year old, practicing law in Pittsburgh. Married, with FOUR kids. I have been interested in fountain pens ever since my wife (then fiance) bought me a vintage Parker 51 at a flea market in State College, PA, back in 1990 or so. To my, apparently, eternal dismay, I lost it in 1992, while working for my uncle over the summer in Columbia, South Carolina. It was, I believe, the best writing pen I've ever owned. I now have a number of Mont Blancs (Meisterstuck "149" is the only MB fountain pen I have; the others are roller balls and ballpoints, which are useful from time to time!) and a Waterman, and I've purchased other Parker 51s on Ebay--but nothing has ever matched the pleasure of writing with the $20 pen. I'm very interested in learning more about all kinds of pens (does anyone know anything about vintage Mentmore pens?) and getting to know everyone here.

Welcome to FPN, Shawn. Good to have you here.
Well, you know, you can send your pens out to some of the nibmeisters who can transform it to the best your pen can be.
I dont kno wmuch about Mentmore pens, but, if you posted a question about them in the Writing Instruments section, I bet you will get a lot of info.

BTW, are you a Nittany Lion? I assumed so, since you mentoined State College, PA.
-Sid

Hello Shawn. Welcome to FPN from Fairmont, West Virginia.

Have fun!

West Virginia huh? I shall behave myself and refrain from telling W. VA. jokes. (Robyn's sister graduated from U. W. Va. - she had lots of them!)

Where in the Pittsburgh area? My family is from there - Turtle Creek, East McKeesport, Irwin..... I went to school in Beaver Falls (yikes!) 30 years ago.

Hi Shawn, and welcome aboard the FPN. My father had a Parker 51 that his favorite pen, until the sac broke. I wish he would have had it restored, but always it became missing over the years. It was his favorite pen by far.

Happy New Year!

Sid: Thanks for the welcome. I am getting the sense that there are a couple of guys on this site who really know what they're doing when it comes to fountain pen repairs. I imagine I will be be availing myself of their services in the not too distant future. And yes, I am a Nittany Lion (though I was never "the" Nittany Lion, though it looks like it would have been lots of fun.

Take care.

Shawn

Thanks for the welcome. And as for the slurs against West Virginia, perhaps it's time to remind people where John Nash was born!!

Best.

Shawn

Ron: I live in Economy Borough, which is in Beaver County (although not particularly near Beaver Falls). I grew up in Plum Borough. Went to school at Penn State and University of South Carolina Sch. of Law. I also spent some time in upstate NY (though not as far "up" as Syracuse) between 2000 and 2003, when we lived in Olean. Lovely place; unfortunately, kind of hard to earn a living there.

Nice to talk with you.

Shawn

Indeed. I am not a native here so I delved quite deep into the history of WV and was very surprised at the large number of famous and important people that came from this little place and important things that happened here. The little town of Fairmont is the source of two holidays on the U.S. calendar: Father's Day and Memorial Day. Father's Day was begun two blocks from where I am sitting, and Decoration Day, which was renamed Memorial Day during my lifetime was originated by the wife of the founder of Fairmont, Mrs. Pierpont. The history of this place goes on and on and I'm proud to live here.

WV is also a rather joke prone place but if you'll refrain, then I'll refrain from calling your town "Piggsburgh". Doh!


Welcome to FPN. We're all a little crazy here so have fun!

Happy New Year to you, too, Ron. Thanks for the welcome.

Hi Shawn,

welcome to FPN. I grew up in a little town just outside of Pittsburgh called Beaver. A lot of my family still lives there. You'll have a lot of fun in this forum.

Blessings,
Dave

Dave: Thanks for the welcome. We go to Beaver quite often; my kids take music and dance lessons there. A very lovely little town. I wish we had known about it when we were looking for a house back in 2003.

Happy New Year to you.

Welcome to FPN, Shawn!! Glad to have you here in the forum. Love those 51's!

Shawn,

yes, Beaver really is an amazing little town. It's weird to see a town like it in this day and age that actually still thrives with all the big megastores that surround the Beaver Valley area. Kind of reminds me of Mayberry RFD. :-) There's a little bakery right on 3rd st called Kretchmars. They have insanely good pastries.

Dave

From an economic perspective, there's always something to be said for being the county seat. While Beaver seems to be doing relatively well, the rest of Beaver County is an economic basketcase.

Greetings from a member that REALLY misses Primanti Bros...lol. I went tp the Art Institute of Pgh way back when, before it was moved to the Boulevard of the Allies. Great, now I want a sandwich...where'd I leave those fries

How true,

Rochester, Vanport and Aliquippa being case and point. I actually lived there during the 60's when the steel mills were still flourishing. It was devastating to watch that industry crumble to its knees. Hope things are going well for you and your family. Glad to see you've been blessed with quite a brood. :-) My wife have been blessed with 7 of our own. Things stay busy in this household as you can imagine. Well, back to finishing up my sermon for tomorrow.

Blessings,
Dave

Hi Shawn and welcome to FPN. Are your children interested in fountain pens or do they think dad is a relic?

I think I have about as much of a chance of interesting my two older kids (boy 12; girl 11) in fountain pens as I do of getting them interested in homework. Fat chance!! My younger boy (6), however, is for some reason expressing an interest, though it may just be that he's starved for attention from me (because I spend way too much time working and/or looking at fountain pens!!!). At any rate, "relic" probably doesn't come close to how I'm viewed, for a variety of reasons; "fossil" may come a little closer.

Thanks for the welcome. It is very nice to spend time with like-minded folks, particularly when one is interested in something so many people find utterly uninteresting, if not bizarre.

Happy New Year.