On our first day of school we took a new Penny pencil that had lead on one end and an eraser on the other that had to be sharpened in the pencil sharpener. The pencil sharpener was supplied by the school, a big Chief tablet which had an ink blotter on the first page, a bottle of mucilage glue with a rubber cap with a slit in the top or white paste glue with a small brush attached to the cap. Later in the school year, after we mastered the pencil we were required to bring a fountain pen and bottle of ink and a dip pen that held a metal split point that slipped into a slit in the end of the wooden shaft, we dipped this into the ink bottle and the split end absorbed enough ink to write with for a line or two. We first learned how to write our letters and numbers soon after we started to school. Our lined paper was from a Big Chief tablet and our pencils were the old Penny Pencils everyone had back in the 30’s. Later pencils had an attached eraser unlike the penny pencil that had an eraser embedded into the pencil on the end. It had to be sharpened when the eraser wore down to the wood just like when the lead wore down on the other end. The dip pen looked much like an artist's brush without the brush had a slit in the end where you placed replaceable pen tips. The tips had a split in them to hold the ink. I often ruined the tips because I pressed too hard while writing. It took a while to learn how to apply the proper pressure for good writing. Some of the tips were not good when you bought them and scratched the porous paper we used to write on. With the dip pen, you would start off with very dark script and end up with thin light colored work. Too much ink on the tip would cause an ugly blot. One had to be careful so as not to turn in a blotted ink paper. Nothing was worse than to have a good paper and ruin it at the end with an ink blob. We also used a paper called an Ink Blot or better known as "Blotter" for blotting up the excess ink, so it would not smear. I well remember the ink pens with the little rubber bladder. It took some expertise filling them and sometimes a mite messy. Lo to the one who used one with a ruptured bladder. The tiny rubber bladder did wear out with the continuous filling and with age. I can also remember some of the problems with faulty ball point pens. I still get a few bad ones today. Ball points have since replaced the old fountain pen.

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Created January 11, 2021

Updated: 14 June, 2021

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