Pens

It annoyed me no end that Shop-Rite put cheap stick pens on sale for their back to school offerings, Papermate one week, Bic this week, but only had black, not blue.  I need neither, but bought a package of black Papermate pens anyway for 99 cents and got a raincheck for the blue variety which remains baited and switched.  I found a package from previous years and transferred it to my active plastic case to the left of my desk.  

I like pens.  Pharmaceutical reps used to drop them off in abundance.  When I worked for the VA, they had government issued white with black strip stick pens in red, blue, and black, though only black could be used for a patient chart.  Another hospital had pens in black, blue, green, and red with free-flowing ink.  I buy some on my own, multicolor.  For daily and weekly planning I color code black, blue, red, green, and purple.  I also have yellow that I don't use for anything.  While cleaning My Space to make it functional, I found and harvested a red Flair pen.  When I needed to spend a little more at Amazon to get free shipping on the item I actually needed, I added the frivolity of a cartridge pen, one of my very favorite items from my own grade school days.  I even still have one, though the cartridges seem to have been discontinued.   And I have gel pens of various brands and colors.  

They are stored in boxes, plastic cases, arise from two cups within reach on my main desk and in repurposed clear peanut containers on my secondary desk.  Some remain in their blister packs.

I don't know what generated my fondness for pens, or even prompted manufacturers to create so many kinds.  I suspect this allure is shared by many others, as people trying to sell things offer them as giveaways, contracting their suppliers to design advertising economical enough to be disposable yet memorable enough to associate the company with something you might want to buy.

As the world moves from handwriting to keyboards, from signatures to e-sign, the popularity of the pen has probably started to fade.  Pharmaceutical companies have not been permitted to drop them off at the doctors' offices for some 20 years.  My own Cross Pens, nearly all gifts to commemorate an occasion, sit in a drawer unused.  They still come up on back to school promotions, though now only the stick pens are cheap.  But my own collection, really needing no more additions, seems inexhaustible.  The allure of the varieties has not faded at all.