Do You Carry Your Pen In Your Shirt Pocket?

[fotographik]

While in the office, the pen is in my shirt pocket if my shirt has a pocket and the FP has a clip. When using my clipless FPs, they go in my pant pockets. Otherwise, they reside in my bag which is pretty much always at my side.

 

 

[handwriter]

Always, and usually more than one pen

[andyk]

Hi

 

In the UK 'expensive' and 'quality' shirts often don't have pockets, so I tend to wear cheaper shirts for work so that I can carry a pen or two and my mobile phone(also saves a fortune compared with what I used to spend on shirts).

 

Andy

[rogerb]

When and where I was growing-up in UK, boys'/men's shirts mostly did not have pockets. As school, my FP was in a pen case, in my school-bag, and now it's usually in a pen-case in my 'man-bag'

The very light shirts I wear here most of the year would not support the heavy-ish pens I tend to favour, and I wouldn't want 'em falling on the tiled floors when I bend down!

As I usually carry 2 pens, I think it's an overload for most shirt pockets, anyway.

I haveta say we used to think the kids with jacket pockets visibly full of pens as geeky(although we didn't know the word then!) One nice FP was cool!

[bassplayrr]

Lately I've been carrying my pen(s) to the office inside a case in either my jacket pocket of my laptop/man bag. Once in the office I take the pen out of the case and clip it in my shirt pocket. I rarely see nice pens around the office, but on occasion I will see a montblanc cap sticking out of a cowoker's shirt pocket, so I'm not the only one here who does this.

Edited May 12, 2011 by bassplayrr

[imnotpete]

I usually slip my Parker 45 and Pilot Pocket Brush in the spiral of my notebook, and slip my Lamy Safari and Pilot Petit1 in my right pants pocket with my keys. If I'm feeling especially well-dressed (nice shirt), I'll put the Parker in my shirt pocket to show off the nice arrow.

 

Left trouser pocket gets my cell phone - nothing else for fear of scratching the screen.

[Ipsilon]

My shirts do not have pockets!!

A few of my jackets have a special pocket for a pen.

Otherwise, in my pants' pockets

 

But usually in my left hand...

Edited May 12, 2011 by Ipsilon

[Ouroboros]

At the office I'm always wearing shirts so there's always a pen clipped to the pocket. If it's a t-shirt or something pocket less and I'm not wearing a jacket with an inside pocket, I go sans fountain pen and rely on my telescopic bullet Space Pen.

[professionaldilettante]

I have 3 pens in a pen case by Ling and Nan here on FPN, and that generally goes into the interior breast pocket of my white coat, or into the on on my shirt. Much easier, and since it's a bit bulkier, I have never had it fall out on me. Easier to transfer 3 pens too.

[Joshua J.]

A Pelikan M150 and Noodler's piston fill rollerball are both in my shirt as I type this.

[hbquikcomjamesl]

A thought:

 

The United States has always been a nation-state that celebrates working for a living, in the same way that some European nation-states have a long history of celebrating not having to work for a living. People who work for a living need functional pockets, whereas the truly idle rich don't.

 

By way of analogy: Back when most of the working class worked outdoors, in agriculture and construction, having a suntan was considered the mark of a peasant, while pale skin was considered the mark of the upper classes. Then, after most of the working class moved indoors, and the idle rich began spending more and more time in outdoor leisure, people actively sought a suntan (or at least, the kind of suntan that doesn't stop abruptly where one's shirtsleeves begin. Then, when people began to realize how carcinogenic extended UV exposure was, they began to consider a suntan for what it really is: just the mark of someone courting melanoma, by spending too much time in the sun without adequate protection.

[hbquikcomjamesl]

And I proudly carry five fountain pens and a 2-AAA-cell Maglite in my breast pocket (except when on a vacation that involves air segments, in which case the number of pens drops to two, and they get replaced with a cheap mechanical pencil when I'm actually traveling by air).

[Bo Bo Olson]

Interesting .... I don't know how old you are, I'm 62... but when I was growing up virtually ALL shirts had pockets.... and they were used if not for a pen than for carrying a pack a cigarettes, etc.

I don't leave the house without a pen or pen/pencil set in my shirt pocket....

As for carrying in a pants pocket or clipped to a pants pocket, I can only say you are asking for a problem of breaking the pen. (Out side the Kaweco Sport made from @ 1930 for pants pocket carry. It is short and thick, hard to break.)

+1

Fountain pens are designed to be carried in shirt pockets or they would not have a clip. Those with out clips are basic desk pens.

 

 

 

Fountain pens came in in 1895...so did rage of button all the way down the front shirts with the newest rage....shirt pockets.

 

After all you didn't want to carry one of those 'leaky' fountain pens in your vest...it was easier to hide the ink stains inside your vest in your shirt, with a pocket :roflmho: . Washer women could get the stains out....good ones that is.

 

1895 was also the time the upper and middle class because of the new washing machines went over to changing their underclothes daily.Just the rich who could afford a washing machine and a maid to use it. Poor folks who didn't wash at home on Monday's, were paying now two dollars for washing a dozen pounds of cloths.

There was a big strike in Atlanta, @ 1890 were the few white washer women joined the colored strikers. So at 2/3s of a daily wage to wash 12 pounds of cloths, one was thrifty.

You had arm protectors so you did not get ink on your cloths, or dirty your shirts. The button on collars and cuffs came off. The well off sill had ironed linen, the rest celluloid.

The rich started wearing sewed on collars and cuffs about this time too. That of course was a high status symbol, so everyone followed ASAP.

 

Still Saturday night baths only. Didn't want to stink in Church.

 

Saturday must have been tough on the nose, with only fans in the Deep South. Just as bad in the north too.

(amazing what you learn when writing a western. )

 

No one wanted to live in the Deep South until AC @ 1955. For the houses of the 'poor' some five years later.Fans was not enough...believe me.

 

One evening pre AC in the Cars, the old man came home and we drove around to midnight, with the vents turned back all the windows down, and 55Mph was too slow. One had to go 60 or better down the country roads just to breath.

 

There was a good reason why southerners spoke so slow.

 

When you get to hell, there is a sign at the door to all directions, and one sign to Mississippi, where it is always a Deep Summer egg frying hot day with high humidity. There is no exit.

 

63, and all shirts my wife bought with out shirt pockets are going to end up in the clothing bin for the poor folks, who don't own fountain pens as is.Most of them have no reason to carry a ball point pen either.

Edited May 12, 2011 by Bo Bo Olson

[teej47]

Interesting. I was in the U.S. Air Force from March 1985 to October 2006. During that time every uniform shirt I ever wore of course had pockets. The pockets always had button down flaps and an inner pen pocket inside the left breast pocket, with a little opening behind the flap so you could get to your pen without having to unbutton the pocket (pretty handy since I usually sewed the corners of the flaps down). I don't necessarily miss pocket flaps (they mostly just make ironing take longer), but I really miss those inner pen pockets. I'm carrying something that's either celluloid or hard rubber most of the time, so there isn't much weight... but I do occasionally carry a "51", which can make my pocket sag or flop around a bit. That doesn't happen with a pen pocket.

 

I don't feel dressed without a pen in my shirt pocket. It's like going out without my hat or belt. It just ain't right.

 

The only time I don't carry a pen in my shirt pocket is when I'm wearing a t-shirt or one of the few polos I have without a pocket... or when I'm doing some outdoor activity (I tend not to write while fishing or mowing the lawn).

 

When I first bought work clothes for my post-military career I accidentally bought a shirt without pockets. It became my eldest son's when he needed a nice shirt for a job interview (he thinks writing is something you do on a keyboard).

 

Tim

[pajaro]

The pens I usually use at work are Montblancs and Parker 51s. You can bet your bottom dollar I carry those in my shirt pocket.

[waterman1924]

The pockets always had button down flaps and an inner pen pocket inside the left breast pocket, with a little opening behind the flap so you could get to your pen without having to unbutton the pocket

 

My uniform shirts I wear on duty are the same... When wearing shirts off duty they usually have a pocket to carry a pen. When wearing a vest I have a pen on a chain along with a pocket watch.

[DrPJM1]

Proper dress shirts don't have pockets and are usually worn with a suit and tie. You carry your pen in the jacket's inner pocket.

I wear long sleeve shirts with pockets 99% of the time, with my fountain pen in the shirt's pocket 100% of the time.

[Fiddler]

All my shirts are cotton kurtas with a left breast pocket. Unfortunately, I'm a reasonably endowed woman so actually carrying anything in that pocket (including a pen) is not a great idea. My Stipula Passeporto is always in my left pants pocket with my cell-phone, but any other pen I have to carry around separately, which is a pain. I suffer from pen-pocket envy!

[omicron]

One semester I carried my pen in my hand due to a lost cap. Which was kinda unsettling, having a guy carry around a sharp pointy thing on public transportation.

[GardenWeasel]

Work days I wear long sleeve shirts and carry my pen or pens clipped inside the pocket. Today happened to be two pastel Esties, one in aqua and the other in peach.