2015 Collection: Sporadic Notes from The Toy Factory #3 Penning Perspective

    

Penning Perspective

    "Being employed full-time for the last 27 years; the first five in the toy factory as seasonal/part-time, I'd forgotten idle-time's effect on my psyche over a prolonged winter lay-off, and as a result, how writing became so integral to my everyday; a lifesaver.

    During those long isolated days over winter, alone as I was, I was drinking, mostly beer, with a few meals interspersed during the day. Homemade stews and soups, steaks, hamburger, pork chops, fried potatoes, bacon, eggs, and a good amount of bread found its way into my body -- and out of it -- when I started writing if only to keep myself sane. 

    I had no ambition to do anything with it. No objective to sell my work to magazines or publishers. Being before the time of personal computers and cellphones, and not owning a TV, writing was simply a cheap activity that I could do on a 24/7 basis. All I needed was a pen or pencil, preferably narrow-ruled 5-subject binder notebooks when I could find them, or good quality unlined paper if I could not.

    I had favorite pens too, Bics mostly, until the 'roller ball' Parker pens came out. After those, I began using (and still use) the Pentel V5 fine point; that I observed with interest over the years, were the favorite choice of hand-writers.

    But pens don't fare well in subzero temperatures. On the other hand, mechanical pencils aren't bothered by 30-below, which makes them pretty utilitarian, if not so one's fingertips."

https://palmvilletownshipmn.blogspot.com/2018/11/pen-point-2018.html 

(Knew I had used this image some place before!)