Joanne
Murray is my cousin. She sent me a book
her son made for her 75th Birthday. It
contained essays that Joanne had written.
In the interest of bias, I am definitely biased so let's get that out of
the way. But once you and I get passed
my bias you come to realize as I have that these essays are something very
special especially to her family and THAT IS THE POINT. As I read them the one of many thoughts that
crept into my mind was "why haven't I been doing this?" Why indeed!
These are thoughts of a daughter, a granddaughter, a mother, a wife, a
cousin (like in my case), an aunt etc.
Most who will read these essays have that in common with Joanne. There are people you know who might enjoy
knowing what you think and what experiences you have been exposed to. Wouldn't it be nice if you let them know by
writing them down as my cousin Joanne has done.
It's never too late to get started.
I will be posting them here about one a week and do so with Joanne's
permission. Hope you keep coming back. Leave your comments below. Jim
"Gymbeaux" Brown
I Write
By Joanne Murray
I write, you write, we write. But are we all right? There appears to be a growing discussion that cursive writing will be obsolete, replaced by email or instant messaging.
Cursive writing refers to a handwriting style in which all the letters in one word are connected as part of a single stroke. The importance of proper handwriting has diminished with the emergence of email and instant messaging. Handwriting is a more personal aspect of communication.
How can we keep a link to the past if we are unable to read script?
I remember the pride I had when I was able to write the alphabet as beautifully as the sisters taught us. One of the biggest thrills was sitting in the 4th grade desk and there was actually a well filled with ink in that little hole. We would carefully dip our pen points (nibs) into it and begin our new lesson. It usually took many dips of the silver nib to complete our assignment. After we had written a few lines, we would use a blotter to absorb the extra ink. At that time, it was customary for many businesses to give away blotters with their advertising on the front. "Do you have any blotters?' we would often ask as we stepped inside a gas station nearby. The owner patiently handed us 4 or 5 of them. My grandfather operated a comptometer school in Youngstown (Ohio), and I was very proud when he would supply my class with abundance, showing his name on the front.
Owning an Esterbrook fountain pen was a status symbol. They held a reservoir of ink by flipping a lever on the side, holding it down and inserting the pen point into a bottle of ink - thus eliminating the need to repeatedly dip the pen into the well.
Now handwriting may become a relic replaced by the keyboard. How will our future generations read the beautiful handwriting of history? The abacus replaced finger counting, and then the calculator replaced the comptometer.
NOTE: Sams Clubs have disposable Fountain Pens you can order online that cost less than $4.00 each. They are actually very fine writing instruments and given the cost, you can afford to give them away as remembrances. http://www.samsclub.com/sams/pilot-varsity-disposable-fountain-stick-india-pen-blue-ink-medium/144489.ip?navAction=
