Bill
Hurst
My name is Bill Hurst and
I am 55 years old. I was born and raised in Lewisville, AR and my family lived
there until after I graduated from college. I spent a lot of my youth on the golf
course in Hope, AR and played golf with many people who later became fairly important.
After college, I began my teaching career and taught science in public schools
for thirty years. I retired in 2000 at age 52 and have no desire to do anymore
that occasionally substitute for friends.
I married my wife in 1972 when she was 17 and I was 25. No one thought it would
last, but in December we will celebrate our 30th anniversary. My wife is a Kindergarten
teacher and has 5 more years before retirement. We hope to build near her home
of Telephone, TX, and to retire there on our 20 acres. My wife enjoys gardening
and crafts.
In 1988 we adopted an infant from Korea. I spend most of my time watching her
grow up and following her sports activities, volleyball, basketball, and softball.
I also spend time fishing in family ponds and lakes, and in tracing my family
history. She is a freshman in high school this year and is doing very well. She
is in all advanced classes and is making A’s.
I fish for largemouth bass in the family ponds; in Texas we call them stock tanks.
I have a small boat and motor to get around on the larger tanks, but there are
times when the pastures are too wet to drive across and I am forced to fish from
the bank. In Arkansas we have a small family lake where we fish for bluegill bream
and crappie.
I have traced all my family lines back at least 12 generations and belong to about
14 genealogical organizations. I am a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery
Co. of Massachusetts, the National Society of Washington Family Descendants, the
Sons of the American Revolution, Magna Charta Barons, and the Descendants of the
Most Noble Order of the Knights of the Garter. They all give you great certificates
for your wall, but not much else.
I have 7 Cross, 10 Sheaffer, 3 Esterbrook, 2 Parker, 1 Hero, and 1 Eversharp fountain
pens. I started collecting vintage pens, but have decided I would prefer new ones
that may become classics in the future. I use mostly PR inks, and have plum, Naples
blue, sonic blue, and velvet black on hand at the moment.
Theodora
Wayte
'Pens!' was the first word
I said, according to my parents!
I have always loved them and wanted a Parker 61 when i saw it advertised in
the New Yorker when i was under 10. i was given a Parker Lady at 9 and have
built up my pens ever since. I do calligraphy for the Hotel i work for, and
have had comments about my hand writing for years. My garage said they
wanted to frame my cheques rather than pay them into the bank..but they
resisted!
I am hoping to get into
nearly full time calligraphy. I earn more in 20
minutes with my pen than I do trotting guests round!
I do watercolours and would like to combine un-cute work with my place cards
etc.
I love combining the right
paper with the right pen and ink.
i have different pens for different 'receivers'. For instance the bank gets
a small Mont Blanc written letter but cards and affectionate letters get
broad nibs.
i think there is a lot of expression in the writing, and not just the words.
It is a dance on paper and has to be seen to be understood. Better than
type.
But here i am waffling.
i would love to exchange samples with other passionate writers/scribes..
I am told i am tall dark
and fascinating! But I dont need any b s p and U
people!
I was even on TV (BBC) a
month ago being 'amusing' on a lifestyle show re my
house.... they skipped my pens and sealing wax....pity!
Yours Theo Wayte.
Sandy
Bryant
Network engineer/java programmer
My collection is pretty small and divided
between vintage and new, but all are users.
I mostly have the standards - 51's, Vacs,
Balances, a few snorkels, etc. I'm a sucker
for flashy celluloid too, and have a few no-name
cheapies with interesting patterns. Never spend
more than $100 on any one pen.
Other interests - oriental
rugs, reading (mostly
modern "literary" fiction), journaling, cycling,
cooking (especially soup and bread), hiking.
Lloyd
Schultz
Journalist, photojournalist
Only returning to FPs over the past year and a half. A couple vintage,
more new and interested mainly in using them.
Work as a journalist/photojournalist.
I'm a 47 year old dad of three
kiddos (one now in college). Wife, Donna, and I have been married 29 years
(doesn't seem possible - time has flown by). Interested in user pens, have
mostly new, and a couple oldies -
just like to write with them. The collection "just happened." Other
interests, chamber music, photography (work and play), bird watching, old
houses, and interested in what others do.
Lloyd
Ernie
Seckinger
OK,
a try at a one page bio. The email address is ernie.seckinger@zebra.net
The occupation is archeologist. Born in 1950.
Pen interest: Definitely
vintage. Vac, snorkel, Esterbrook J’s and Transitionals, would love to get
into early 20th century Waterman and general flexible nibs.
Everyday user. I have not bid on items that went for low prices since the original
stickers remained and I (as an archeologist) would find it hard to remove the
sticker. I need to use the pen!
Vintage ink but the debate about Quink and Vacumatic diaphragms has me nervous.
Not a mechanical person. I can change Esterbrook nibs and sacs, clean a pen, smooth
a nib (with some errors).
About 50 pens and 40 inks, but about 6 or so everyday users: black Balance II,
retired blue Vanishing Point, a black and a blue Waterman Phileas, a 51, an Esterbrook
Transitional (with my own custom nib that flows like a river with Omas blue ink).
A few 1920s mechanical pencils.
Everyday inks Aurora black, Omas blue, old Sheaffer black–when good paper
available, Sheaffer red and Rotring red for editing. Waterman Florida blue, Sheaffer
black, and Namiki blue cartridges for travel (of which there is far too much).
I began the use of a fountain pen around 1965, probably in the 10th grade. That
Sheaffer translucent blue cartridge pen is still with me and began my reentry
into the fountain pen world in 1998. I suppose its smoothness is due to the thousands
of miles its steel nib has written. It is a lot of fun with PR Naples Blue. Around
1970 I came into a copper Esterbrook J, inherited from a great great uncle. Its
nib was beyond horrible though and saw little use until I encountered a fellow
Baldwin County, Alabama resident known as the Polish Sumgai. From him I not only
got a new nib, but also began a minor collection of various Esterbrooks. If by
the way you think they are no fun, what pen do you think Tippi Hedren uses in
The Birds? Perhaps the pen I am most proud of is a Parker 75 Cisele that I bought
for my mother, Christmas 1972, when I was the pen department manager of Millers
Book and Office Supply on Broad Street in Atlanta, a store now sadly defunct.
She recently returned the favor and presented the pen to me.
Once I began again, there was no turning back. A trip to Phoenix found me at Flax
where I bought a nice pen cabinet that now covers the part of my desk not occupied
by my computer monitor, bottles of ink, or pen desk sets. I have made an effort
to slow down acquisition though and have begun the process of cull to improve
my collection. I also try to spend more time writing with them.
My writing has four forms: journal, letters, creative, and reading notes. The
journal uses the most ink. I write a fair number of letters but in the day of
telephone and email, when I do get an answer it most often comes through those
latter media. To receive a handwritten letter or note is a joy.
My creative writing begins its first draft with a pen. The final moves, when adequate,
to my website: www.zebra.net/~ernie.seckinger where I deal with matters of reading
and Transcendentalism as well as the obligatory section on genealogy.
For the archeology connection, a fountain pen will not write on Rite-in-the-Rain®
paper! Since my training was in the prehistoric tradition, I know little about
the archeology of writing and pens, but now find the topic fascinating. Unfortunately,
most ink bottles greater than 75 years old are dug from privies by those who,
meaning to or not, destroy archeological deposits and data. So, I do not collect
those.
Each morning, I stumble to the table for breakfast and the day’s more substantial
reading. I use there a pen and a particular ink until used up or my mood changes.
Abbreviated–hopeful refined–versions of these notes become reading
notes on my website.
Daphne is in the Mobile metro area. It is a true struggle each day to drive to
work across the head of Mobile Bay (or the lower end of the Mobile River Delta
depending on which way you look) seeing along the way pelicans–both brown
and white in the fall and winter, ibis, gulls by the gezillion, the Battleship
Alabama, through the 1941 Bankhead Tunnel (named for Tallulah’s father)
on to park in a downtown Mobile historic district within 100 feet of a live oak
tree.
My
web site.
