Meeting up with an old friend - Parker 25

October 14, 2021

It was good to see the autumn pen show in London on Sunday was significantly busier both in terms of exhibitors and visitors than the delayed spring show in July. As is customary, several vendors had boxes of fountain pens in which all are encouraged to rummage to either find a bargain (unlikely!) or more probably take a trip down memory lane. For me that happened when I laid eyes on a lonely looking Parker 25, a pen that I don't think I have probably seen in the flesh since 1985 when I left my primary school - what memories it brought back!

That period of my schooling was extremely happy and I remember the 25 to have been a popular pen, I think some off my friends may well have owned the matching ball point and propelling pencil but my memory has probably let me down in that respect - my handwriting was even worse then than it is now and that is saying something. I was given extra classes to try and improve by Mrs Glydon, the art teacher - the 25 was my weapon of choice! One of the other teachers offered an engraving service and you could get your name engraved on the clip for 50p - the only problem was that his handwriting was worse than mine.

I was happy to exchange £5 for the Parker on Sunday, a happy deal no doubt where both parties considered themselves a winner, the exhibitor guessed my age (49) exactly, showing that it was a pen of a certain specific vintage. A Parker converter has subsequently been purchased on Ebay for a little more than the value of the pen and we are both now ready to continue our journey, re-acquainted at last.

October 14, 2021

That's a good price and they are great pens for the money. I've recently started to use my old P25 (MkIII 2nd quarter 1982) from way back when. I found it again when I helped to clear the loft at my dad's house. It was left with ink in the cartridge so I gave it an overnight soak and 10 minutes in the ultrasonic cleaner. which cleaned it up nicely It's a tad thin in the body for extended writing sessions but for quick journalling it works just fine.

They definitely have that 1970s styling - I always think of Space 1999 as I recall the fonts used for the TV titles and Parker were similar to my eyes at the time. I recall that my teachers didn't think much of my handwriting generally, even less so using a fountain pen. No wonder I went into a career where you use keyboards.

The second pen is a MkI that I picked up some time ago.