A Fountain Pen, Wet Ink on Real Stationary
April 5, 2010 by franceskakugawa | Edit
A Fountain Pen, Wet Ink on Real Stationary
I revived an old practice of mine last week. I took one of my fountain pens out of my collection, filled it with ink and went to the mall to look for elegant, real stationary. At Hallmark Cards, the cashier said, “No one writes letters anymore so we don’t carry them.” I found a box at a specialty shop. I had hoped for paper, thin enough so they would rustle in your hands, my words delivered in a gentle breeze. I found a box with each sheet of thicker stock, smooth at all the edges except at the bottom, as if it had just come off the bark of a tree.
Beginning a letter with a fountain pen has its own rules. Salutations such as Hi, Hey, Hello, or Whats’up won’t work. It has to begin with that four letter word Dear.
I sat in front of an Espresso shop with a cup of latte. In the hive of the mall, I felt alone, like Elizabeth Barrett Browning or Emily Dickinson in her attic. While others around me had their ears stuck to a cell phone or their eyes glued to a laptop, I wrote. I knew the person receiving my hand-written letter would receive each word as it was being written, deliberately and carefully , each stroke carefully made with person in mind. I could see my thoughts flowing out with each word. There is no delete key on my pen. It was an act of pure romance.
The letter was received as expected when the following was emailed back:
“ It was a wonderful experience to read it, a true step back to a kinder time, when people put thought and vibrant content into their letters. Scenes from a mall….”
There is something romantic and very personal even in folding the paper, licking the envelope and placing a stamp for the postman.
I’m still looking for stationary that will rustle in the breeze.
(Since that letter, I have taken my collection of pens out of storage. I had some of the nibs replaced. I recommend Colorado Pen if you can’t find a local pen shop. Helpful and wonderful personnel on the phone, beautiful catalogs and immediate service.)
A friend saved all of the letters I wrote to her while we lived in Germany. The first Christmas after we returned, she gifted wrapped them in a fancy box and gave them to me. Presto! An automatic journal without the need to write every day.
I did the same for a former third grade student of mine. When she went to Harvard, I wrote her letters and saved all the ones she sent me. When she graduated from Harvard, my gift to her was all her letters to me. They were awesome letters because she’s a writer, adventurist, rebel, poet, all in one.
I had a pen pal during high school and years later when we were both adults, her mother found all my hand-written letters in the attic. I have them now.
Pathetic, funny thoughts of a girl filled with dreams. wanting so much.
Dreams are never pathetic unless left fallow. The romance of language is only as potent as the faintest ink.
That sounds lovely! We look forward to your Christmas letters. I actually send birthday cards in the mail to many people. You should join my list as I know you would appreciate it! When is your birthday again?
I’ll email my birthday to you because I don’t want to receive one million cards on my birthday by my reading public. Indulge me in my fantasy. Be sure my former 3rd grader who happens to be your husband ink his name in it, too. Tell him I can always go back and change his grades on his report cards.
History shows threats really work with him. Did you know when he was in college, I threatened him that if he continued to be silent, I would ask his parents to rent his bedroom while he was in college? It worked.
The amazing thing with google is finding blogs one would not ordinarily find (and a blog post from a few years ago)! For the past few years I have been looking for decent stationary and have been told the same thing “People don’t write anymore, they email”. I love a paper letter, I can tuck it into my handbag and tote it with me, it’s not stuck in the computer lost amongst other emails, I have boxes of correspondence from friends and family and sometimes I reread them, it’s like visiting an old friend…again. My middle son just moved to an area with no cell coverage (in the middle of nowhere….literally). In a letter to him I told him that this was how we “texted and emailed” back in the day. We’ll see if he sends a note back. My two younger children love their fountain pens and I hope that they grow up to appreciate a nice old fashioned letter.
Lovely blog post, thank you.
When a former 3rd grade student of mine went off to college, she and I wrote real letters and I kept a copy of my letters to her, for her graduation I gave her the letters she wrote me from Harvard…and my own…and she thought it was wonderful. Her letters captured her college years. I had the gift titled: Letters from Harvard. She was only 18 so there were many letters describing her attempts to wean herself away from her parents, etc. After my mother was gone, I found all our letters since childhood kept in her bureau.
That’s wonderful about your son being in a no-zone area!!!