I always wondered why my mom never crossed her Ts at the end of a word. I was poking around and came across a site called "zanerian" and found an example of writing that matched hers.

It looks like she was trained to write using Spencerian script.

Learn something new all the time.....

-Bruce

Zanerian site

Don't know what my mom was trained in, Bruce, but she had a beautiful hand and did her "ts" the same way. After making the downstroke that would complete the vertical staff of the "t", instead of lifting her pen and crossing the "t", she would make a short upstroke in a curve that would go away from the staff and extend maybe 1/3 of the vertical distance of the staff.

I copied that style of "ts" at the end of words for many years, but for reasons unknown to me, I've gravitated away from it. I can, though, begin it again w/o even thinking about it. It's just like jumping into a vehicle with manual shift. My head just reverts back to the past and I'm off and driving, double clutching through the gears as if auto trannies and synchromesh were never invented!

I use the same "t" at the end of words that your mother did. I was taught to use that form in Palmer Method penmanship classes in the mid-1950s. The Palmer and Zane Blosser penmanship books that I have both show it.

My mom just turned 100 in Sept., Mary, and unfortunately, in the last year, senile dementia has set in and nowadays she doesn't know what her name is let alone being able to write it. But, I suspect that it was the Palmer method, also. When younger, her scribling would take the form of the exercises belonging to that educational protocol. Her loops, circles, etc. were uniform to a knat's eyelash and absolutely symetrical.

It was the Palmer method that I learned under in the 40s, too! Difference was that I didn't practice!

If only I could write like that.
Whenever I see that ornamental script on wedding invitations for example, I am messmerized by its beauty.

Jeen

The Zanerian Manual of Alphabets and Engrossing is an amazing book which can still be bought (including through Amazon) and which has page after page of ornamental penmanship and instructions.

My mother, who would be 101 if she were still alive, also made the type of "t" that Roger so aptly described. For some reason unbeknown to me, I never liked it! I was taught in the late 40s & early 50s to literally cross my t's, so maybe it was just my training that made the other form seem "not right" to me. I have always thought it was Palmer script that I learned in school, but wouldn't swear to it. There were alphabetical letter "squares" in cursive that were placed along the top of the blackboard when I was in grade school.

I like Spencerian or other ornamental script on envelopes, wedding invitations and diplomas, but I've never cared for reading page after page of it.

Ann

Hmmm....My mom passed away 22 years ago. She would be 88. I was only 26 at the time.

Anyway, this has turned into a great topic!

Thanks for all your inputs.

-Bruce

Very interesting... from the looks of things I was taught "Business Script" when I went to parochial school in the Bronx, NY all those many years ago....
You know the days, when they were still allowed to smack your knuckles with a ruler for doing something wrong...
Or you had to write something 100 times ......
Gee.. do you think all that 100 time writing is what improved my penmanship...

I remember those writing punishments. Probably how I developed that ugly callus on my finger. And, possibly, why my handwriting is so frightening.

My mother's handwriting, on the other hand, has always been amazing.

Oh my, does that bring back memories; not very good memories at that.

In grade school, I developed an attitute towards writing as something to be avoided, if possible, and to be completed quickly, concisely, and accurately if unavoidable.

This probably contributed to a writing style lacking in ornamentation, verbosity and digressions.

BTW, I now enjoy writing with any of my many fountain pens. Even when tired beyond reason, I'll make a point of writing at least a few lines in my journal; often I'll go on for pages.

Oh yes, eventually, the good sisters despaired of ever improving my penmanship.

It remained as it was, unreadable by anyone but me (and there were times when not even I could decipher those arcane scratchings!) until I found James Pickering's website and began practicing and using italic minuscules. I use carefully formed Roman Capitals as majuscules.

At some future time, I'll probably post some samples, not as an example of handwriting but as a review of a favorite pen or ink.

Memories, indeed!

When faced with the daunting task of those repetitive sentences, I developed a way of holding three pencils in my writing hand and could write three identical sentences simultaneously. So if I had to write something 500 times, it only required me to do it 167 times.

It worked out that the three pencils held hard together exactly matched the lined tablets. Each of the three sentences was dead on a line and the teacher never knew, because they usually left the room while I did this after school hours. They never knew, that is, until that fateful day when the teacher came back into the room quietly, without my knowledge, and watched me doing it for some moments before calling me out on it.

And speaking of those horrible tablets...I was in grammar school during WWII and the paper used in those tablets was the pits! <_< Ink couldn't be used at all, so pencil was the only thing they tolerated. Later, in junior HS after the war was over, I could scarcely believe the difference in the better paper available. With my Esterbrook and that great new paper, it was a different world. :bunny1:

I wish it had only been 100 times. Sister Collette kept me after school writing "I must not talk during a fire drill." 500 times. It was after 6:00 p.m. by the time I turned my task in to her.

I was assigned more than a few tasks to write during my years at St. Patrick School. I'm not sure that the pratice improved my penmanship and I know it didn't change my classroom behavior.

In sixth grade Gae Ryan, Mary Lou Ring, Barbara Reisinger, Anne McNamara and I decided to prove to Sister Christine that she was wrong when she said "You girls cannot get good grades if you don't behave in class." We talked through every class and studied together every night. All of us earned staight As in our academic subjects and Fs in attention and deportment.

When we graduated from St. Patrick's we all went on to Aquinas Academy, a Catholic high school for girls. We all graduated with honors and attitude.

Ah yes, the days before cut and paste. My penmanship is sad. I do most writing by e-mail, word processor, or CAD these days. I envy those that can take a pen and make John Handcock-like designs when writing. I stand back and watch those guys trying pens at shows. I'm not sure if it's more a 'you have it or you don't' type thing, or if it's more of a learned art. Same with watching a cartoonist. They make it look so easy to draw a lifelike Mickey. I try that and it looks more like Charley Brown's chicken scratching!

With the mandatory ugly and slippery yellow Bic stick.
:doh: I still remember a particularly loooong punishment, in first grade, when the teacher kept tearing up the page. Of course after each page my handwriting was worse. I was so tense and anxious, I vividly remember the punishment tru this day.

As a child, I was never able to form good letters with those Bic stick, so I did my homework in pencil and practiced writing with dip pens at home.

In third grade, I openly rebelled against the bic stick by bringing all kind of fun ballpoints and pencils in the classroom, flaunting them in the morning and promply bringing them back home the same afternoon because invariably the teacher would threaten to take the pen.

"Lectures" were given on how Baron Bic was a great supporter of private schools and we were to, in turn, support him by buying his products.

I think I may have mumbled the word "junk" in French and talked my head off to my classmates about fountain pens and dip pens, I pointed out that our desks had an inkwell slot.

In third grade, I brought my first fountain pen at school (still forbidden but the teacher did not have the stomach to fight my very strong resolve and arguments).
I never looked back.
9

My handwriting used to be EXTREMELY bad.

I wanted to write in an italic hand and, within the last year, I studied the formation of the characters, and with a fair amount of practice, now produce writing which is both legible and IMO somewhat of a pleasure to look at.

It can be done!

As the musician said when asked how to get to Carnagie Hall, "Practice, man. Practice!"