Children Arriving

My Waterman is home.

I inked her up with Rohrer & Klingner Alt-Bordeaux and gave her a test run in my Apica C10. She is writing smoothly, nicely flexing and the Alt-Bordeaux clearly likes a slightly wetter nib.

And, I just received an alert from UPS that Chartpak has mailed my Pelikan M215 and she too is on her way home.

Wouldn't it be a nice gift to come home from my workshop in Livingston Manor (NY) to find her on my porch.

Shucks, I just read the notification more carefully, delivery is scheduled for 29 September--Monday.

A Waterman for the price of a cup of coffee

In 1919, long before I was born, but a date that has some significance to me, a Waterman fountain pen sold for what I pay now for a bad container of coffee in nearby Narrowsburg.

What inflation rate is that?

And how did a fountain pen, a utilitarian object, made of plastic and metal, turn into a collector's item?

Life is beautiful!

Perhaps it does work

While not a Waterman 12, this A.A is within my price range and I had enough cash in my paypal account to pay for it without a transfer of funds.

It is small and perhaps easy to carry around and seems to write well. A Waterman with a stub nib may be the ticket to end the fountain pen ride.

A ride more exhausting and not nearly as exhilerating as my five year old rides on Coney Island's Carousel and far more expensive.
Yes, when I was five and even late into my teens, I'd go to Coney Island, go to Nathan's, get a hotdog and a bag of their special fries and walk over to the Carousel. I'd stand in front of the building, nibbling and then jump on a horse, and take the ride around and around and try to catch the ring.

As I got older the thrill of the brass ring diminished, but in my memory, the brass ring is as indelible and permanent as bulletproof ink--the thrill of the ride and the possibility of one more time around.