Peanuts by Charles Schulz for April 22, 2014

Was this before ballpoints?

Was CB usin’ a fountain pen?

Yup. Not even a cartridge fountain pen – one you dip in an inkwell.

Orion

Sad, Charlie Brown has better handwriting than me (besides the smudges, he’s king of the smudges)

I don’t know about the United States, but here in Norway, when I went to school in the 1970s, they still insisted that we used fountain pens with cartridges. Not that ballpoint pens weren’t in common use long before that.

We weren’t allowed to write in ballpoint until sixth grade (about 1973 in the Midwest). In my old elementary (which my father attended many, many years before) there were inkwells in the desks but we used them to keep stuff in. I can’t imagine the mess of letting some of us use actual liquid ink and pens!! But the teachers could, I’m sure!! I remember my 8th grade geography teacher (who also taught my father) had one of those fountain pens you filled with a little rubber balloon-thing and we were always fascinated by it. She used purple ink, which wasn’t regulation, but she was the oldest teacher in the school so they let it slide.

But it wasn’t until the 50s that they really pushed fountain pens to the side. I wonder how many teachers realized that the Palmer method’s insistence on right-handed writing was based on the old (pre-Quink) slow drying inks that would continue to smear several minutes after writing.

Serendipity, we had this conversation at my brother’s house last night! He had to use a fountain pen in grammar school in the 60’s, I got to use a ballpoint in the 70’s. Pays to be 10 years younger!

i think the pen is alive.

Smuged up Charlie Brown and Linus!

I think part of the gag is CB can find a way to make a mess out of any pen, even a ball-point.

Can you imagine how badly CB would screw up the internet if he were writing “Dear Email Pal” in today’s age?

Cursive isn’t a required course anymore, it’s an elective. About all they teach in cursive is how to sign your name.

Pre-Facebook. I imagine Schultz would have done a number on likes / friends and whatever on poor old Charlie.

I don’t think he has learned to use it properly, yet.

I remember using Fountain Pens in school. One type had a pump like device to suck up the ink. Some kids were able to actually make it work without making a mess. Most of us were not able to master that trick.I also remember using the cartridge type, for some of us this was just slightly less of a messy problem.

“MY MY MY MR. BENNY” (Apologies to Eddie Rochester of the Jack Benny radio and TV show).

I still use a fountain pen and I am left handed (more correctly a mirror-imaged left handed) which means I write with my left hand, but more like someone who is right handed. I also right from below and don’t hook.

That’s what my handwriting looks like… I’m a Southpaw.

That’s not always the case for some people but it is with me.

xxx

We had a 5th grade teacher who would not allow any student not getting an A in penmanship to use pen & ink.

There IS no technology after 1960 in the world of Peanuts – little kids write with fountain pens as if nothing else exists. In fact, there isn’t much evidence that society has advanced at all in the Peanuts universe: kids dress like something out of Our Gang, they eat “cold” cereal (and actually refer to it in conversation as “cold cereal”), automobiles or mass transit of any kind is practically non-existent, there’s apparently only one African-American in the entire town, they wear strange little sailor hats when they go to summer camp, and it seems Willie Mays was the last star that the sport of baseball produced. However; on the other hand, one could make the argument that the kids in Peanuts are highly advanced – they appear to take on all household responsibilities in a manner far beyond their years: they cook meals, clean house, pay bills, celebrate holidays, travel across town on their own (on foot, of course) and even go on vacation.

Charlie messy isn’t he????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a coincidence, me and my class have just gotten pen pals (they live in Australia).