I'm one of those guys who vaguely recalls maybe having a cheap fountain pen 25 years ago, but didn't quite understand it and didn't get hooked at the time, despite being a prolific letter writer. It was the same with hats; in the '80s I had (still have) an official Indiana Jones fedora. I liked it, wore what hats I could find, but still didn't go any farther with it.
In 2004 my wife gave me a leather hand-bound, paper hand-made journal that she came across during a business trip. I never was one to journal, so I don't know why she got it other than she liked it and thought I would, too. When I looked at it, one of my favorite scenes with Steve Martin in the movie "Roxanne" came to mind--the scene where he's been convinced to help write love notes and starts muttering to himself about needing the right pen and the right paper for it. My own reaction to the journal was to tell my wife that something as fine as the journal required a fountain pen if I was to write in it.
Well, the lovely lady came through. For my birthday that year she presented me with a Waterman Hemisphere in dark marbled green with a fine nib. I immediately used it to write in the journal... but only wrote a couple of times before I forgot about it again. (Not used to journaling, you see.)
A bit over a year ago, when looking for information about hat stretchers, I stumbled across the Fedora Lounge. That turned my interest in hats up to full throttle. A while down the road I was reading posts about fountain pens found out about The FPN through Handlebar (AKA Moustache in the Lounge) and his posting. That turned up the heat on my interest in fountain pens. As I usually do, I promply went a bit overboard.
I don't have a good inventory of my pens, but I have a number of Esterbrooks, both lever-fill and dip-less. I also have a couple of Duofold Jrs and some Parkers--21s, I think they are. I've bought books and supplies/tools for fountain pen maintenance and repair. Now I just need to give it a shot!
I've gotten back into writing letters, much to my brother's dismay. He once claimed that trying to read my writing was enough to make his ears bleed.
However, one of my curent plans is for improved handwriting, so I think that'll be OK.Well, that's enough for now. I'll try to be around a bit more often!
Regards,
Tom
