Hi, Don:

I still have a few Parker Pens. The Parker Pen company was right alongside the railroad tracks, about ten blocks from where I grew up and when we headed out to open country on the tracks, we'd always check the dump behind the factory to see what they'd thrown away. The had a policy back then of keeping parts in stock for a long time, so the pens they were throwing out were realllly old. My Mother would also bring home working fountain pens that they were finally disposing of and gave to the employees. My personal take on Parker Pens is that the company was killed because they never developed a clean-writing ball point. I never liked the way the Jotters wrote. Left little balls of ink every now and then. I have a beautiful matched seet of a Parker Pen and Pencil my Mother gave to me a few years ago, and treasure it, even though I write more commonly with a calligraphy pen now.

Jerry