Primary school - pencil in exercise book, crayon if I couldn't find a pencil
Prep school - just missed the wooden pen + inkwell in desk era and went straight to fountain pen. I had an Osmiroid and hankered after a Parker like my richer chums. Learned copperplate in a book with lines and curly letters to copy.
Public school - Parker fountain pen at last. Ball-points were banned. Masters marked our work with red-inked fountain pens. The French master had a green-inked fountain pen for corrections.
College - tried ball-points but too thin to hold properly and needed too much pressure; stuck with the fountain pen.
Work - the last thing you need on the shop floor of a chemical plant is a damn fountain pen. Ball-point.
Sales - Fountain pen for meeting notes; I am a minor curiosity; proposals, specs and system designs typed up on Perfect Software or Word.
Captain of industry - still using fountain pen or roller-ball with cap. By this time my hitherto lovely copperplate is only legible by me. My scrawled notes expanded and typed in Word or Works.
Now - pencil behind the ear for gardening quotes, fat ball-point in pocket for swimming notes. Letters, form and cheque signing, greetings cards, swimming reports written with late mum's posey gold Sheaffer fountain pen; everything else typed on Word. My schoolboy Parker is in my desk draw, sulking.
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