Yesterday I ordered some pens from China .
I know, I know, we have more than enough pens in Canada .
I have a lot of pens in my house when it comes right down to it.
Whenever I am out for a walk and see a pen, I just have to
pick it up. You might think that wouldn’t happen very often, but I regularly
walk by a high school and there are pens on the ground daily. Sure, some of
them are crushed or missing the top, or just generally defective in some way. I
will pick them up and have a look and make the decision whether or not it will
be worth keeping. I don’t really have much else to do except watch Buster sniff
bushes and shit by the side of the road.
I always keep red pens. I don’t know why, because I never,
ever, will use a red pen. I guess I just like the look of the ink. I saw a lot
of red ink when I was in school so in a way it is like taking a walk down
memory lane. I keep felt pens as well, but after you have ten or twenty of them
it is kind of futile. Still, you just never know when you might get a job with
the government and have to redact some sensitive documents and what with cost
cutting at all levels of the government I could actually be the person protecting
our countries secrets. Kind of makes me want to go out and get a flag.
Blue and black pens have to be pretty nice for me to keep
them. Not just any old Tombow, Bic or Parker will do, I have plenty of the
cheap kind. The trouble I am having now is that people don’t toss out nice pens
and if they do, it is generally for a very good reason. I have had a leaky pen
in my hands and pocket quite often lately. The smart guy would bring a plastic
bag to put the pens in, but the only bags I carry with me are for Busters
exclusive use. Winter isn’t really very good for finding pens what with the
snow and all. That is another reason to look forward to spring.
Anyways, back to my Chinese pens. I think I mentioned that I
have recently become infatuated with fountain pens. I don’t know why, but there
you have it. While I was looking online for vintage pen nibs on eBay I kept
running across ads for pens from China .
One of the companies was pretty intriguing, The Shanghai
Hero Pen Company. It has been in business since 1931 as the Huafu Pen Company
but changed its name to the Hero Company in 1966. They make a wide range of
pens from the very cheap to the crazy expensive. They sell fountain pens (the
cheap ones) like our stores sell Bic ball point pens, in packs of ten. Who needs
ten fountain pens? I flashed on an image of some guy blogging in China
writing “Who needs ten ball point pens?”
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