How Just One Mistake Destroyed Parker, The World's Greatest Pen Empire

Comments · 44

• PA

  @PatrickHutton · 1 day ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SSGEs6e_bU&amp;t=2088">34:48</a> love the old school £ coins.

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• BI

  @BigJoePhatom309 · 1 day ago

  My Mom worked at the Parker Pen headquarters in Janesville Wisconsin in the 1950&apos;s. &nbsp;Parker and General Motors factory were the largest employers in Janesville. <br>In the 1960&apos;s Parker and GM paid their workers with $2 bills one week. This was intended to show the locals how important Parker and GM were to the local economy. <br>My Dad worked in a grocery store in Janesville. &nbsp;He talked about all of the $2 bills that were spent at the store.

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• DO

  @dongrandmaster3787 · 13 days ago (edited)

  My father Parker Pens, starting from 1958 still in the family. He passed away, next November will be 11 years since his death. From 1958-1980 he had a habit too buy a new Parker Pen before the return to school day.<br><br>His Parkers wrote notes to generation of students that he taught when Kuwait was a British Protectrat.

  2

• BL

  @blandingscastle3729 · 3 weeks ago

  Don Doman, the industrial engineering maverick behind the designing and success of Parker 51, the most-sought fountain pen of the 20th century, and many other successful models must be remembered.

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• TO

  @tomthomas1182 · 5 days ago

  I remember working at Janesville Rock County airport. Parker hangared their two airplanes there before jets became popular. They had a DC 3 and B26 converted to a corporate seating configuration. Interesting stuff at the time.

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• FA

  @FallenEmpireStories-AS · 6 days ago

  Crazy how a pen can carry so much history. The part about generations of families working at the Newhaven factory really stayed with me. <br>It wasn’t just a factory closing it was a whole community losing part of its identity.

• MA

  @masudashizue777 · 3 weeks ago

  My father served in Korea and Vietnam and always stuck to his Parker 51.

  3

• ST

  @steven-k7j7v · 4 weeks ago (edited)

  Still have my Parker 45 from school, early 70&apos;s and my Jotter took me through university &nbsp;twice late 70&apos;s and early 80&apos;s.<br>There was always the argument about which was better, Schäfer or Parker. I think Schäfer were more expensive and usually took the credit. A parker was still affordable and readily available.<br><br>Edit: In the early school years 60&apos;s after pencils, we had to use ink pens to write with. The type you dip into the ink. The ink monitor would fill up the porcelain pots and distribute them. Blotting paper was a must.<br>I think emails killed letter writing, and before it with cheaper phone call prices.<br>I wonder how many people still sit down and write long letters with pen and paper these days? 🤔

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• SC

  @Sci-Fi_Quizshow · 1 day ago (edited)

  Parker fountain pens and ballpoint Jotters were part of our daily lives. Parents uncles, teachers and important guests always carried and used a Paker writing instrument. So when I graduated high school, my mother, a teacher, gifted me her trusty old Blood Red Parker 21. It had already clocked a dozen or so years and only God knows how many miles of writing! For my part I was so in love with that pen that I only occasionally used it, eventually using &nbsp;Pilot fountain pen as my work horse while storing the Parker 21 as a memento. Years followed, went to college and then university so the heavy essay writings needed some economy as well as ruggedness and practicality. That&apos;s when I bought my Parker 15 and also Parker Vector, but finally deciding to settle for the indestructible Parker 25. I always liked the solid feel with the practical and simple utility. Elegant but not just for admiring it. Meanwhile I&apos;d been gifted, again, my mother&apos;s Parker Burgundy Parker 45, after graduating from university, which she herself was gifted by her headmistress as a way to express appreciation and to celebrate passing a high percentage of students with high averages, for a few years in a row. Therefore for me, Parker has been a part of my life, and my family&apos;s life since childhood. Now I look for vintage Parker pens at auctions and try my best to catch some of those early gems. I would often imagine what other neat stories and events these pens would have held for their previous owners, and that brings a smile to my face as I know I would more than likely be taking good care of them.

• AG

  @agentred98905 · 2 weeks ago

  without Parker my collection feel incomplete.

  1

• AS

  @ash-1952 · 11 days ago

  I have got gold plated pen and ball point pen and stainless steel ball point bought back in late 70’s .

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• HA

  @hawcubites · 4 weeks ago

  I have a heavily silver plated Cross pen. Love it.

  5