Saturday, January 24, 2009

My personal Holy Grail

We had a storage room in the house where I grew up. It was basically a long windowless closet that ran along the wall behind the family room. My parents kept everything in there from tools to wrapping paper to cans of paint. It also had a pretty high creepy factor; but was a great place to hide when Mom was calling us to help fold laundry. My dad decided it was a good place to install a pencil sharpener. And it was a PENCIL SHARPENER. A rounded, heavy, old metal thing that looked like a small zeppelin. I still remember the grinding sound and what it smelled like when I sharpened my yellow #2's. As we all know, there is nothing more satisfying than writing or drawing (!) with a perfectly sharpened pencil. I am now on a quest to find one of my very own. I think I'll put it up on the wall in the kitchen so I can sharpen pencils all day long.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

We had one as well, however it was never mounted on the wall. Hence the tips and spills and constant cleaning of pencil sharpenings. But yes, the aroma of a freshly sharpened pencil... almost as good as fresh baked bread, a new box of crayons or freshly sawn wood!
Blessings, Kim

Sue (Vintage Rescue) said...

This is too funny! We had one too (I think everyone did). Nearly every estate sale I go to has one, usually mounted in a creepy storage room or the basement (sometimes on the stairs, which I've never figured out).

P.S. I still use pencils a LOT.

Heidi Ann said...

Oh, cool - of course, we had one, too. didn't everybody? I still miss stuff like that.

Anonymous said...

Oh Dot, I went to an open house yesterday in the neighborhood and there in the closet was one of these beauties. The house was totally empty except for the sharpener...thought about getting out a trusty screwdriver and getting it for you!

Anonymous said...

I can smell those pencils now! There is nothing like a clean sheet of paper and a freshly sharpened #2 pencil. Good luck on your quest!