Treasure Box

I keep my wrapping paper supplies in a cardboard box. At some point, it seemed like a good idea (or maybe the only place I had room) to store this old Lipton "Jewel Casket" tea tin from the late 1960's or early 1970's in it too. For most of it's life with me, it has held the overflow of pens and pencils we seemed to collect. Periodically I go through it to test the pens, tossing any that have dried out and restocking my pen holders around the house. I hadn't looked in it for quite a while, so when the box came out to wrap Christmas presents, I took a few minutes to sort through it again. There were magic markers, pens for writing on overhead projector acetate, lots of free promotional ballpoint pens, and even an old fountain pen that I think belonged to one of my brothers back when he was in high school.

There were surprises. Like a second Shaeaffer cartridge pen. I used to use these in college - I could get refills in pretty colors like turquoise, and I liked the calligraphy-style nib that scratched across the paper. I hadn't used mine for a long time, having run out of cartridges, but I just got more a few months ago. I didn't remember having more than one of these pens. I also didn't remember having this many drawing pencils. I don't know where they came from really. I did take a summer school art course when I was in junior high; could they be that old?

There were a lot of felt tipped pens, about half of them dried up. Do they even make the Bic Banana any more? They were all the rage in the '70's. A few rollerball pens survived as well. As old as some of these pens are, it's a wonder any of them still write.

And after all the pens were removed, here is what was left - lots and lots of lead pencils. This is probably enough to last me the rest of my life, since now I tend to use mechanical pencils. Oh, and there were a few hi-lighters - I got so addicted to them in college and still use them from time to time. You can see the brown fountain pen in there too, and a cheap plastic thing that had a nib on the end to dip in ink, just like in the olden days. This was another fad from the 1970's.