This transcript was generated from an audio file by AI, and may contain inaccuracies.
Transcript
Like, I don't have to write down my minutes anymore.
If somebody picks up the phone, I won't lose my connection now.
Hello and welcome to Erasable, the world's best only and most certainly not number two pencil podcast. This is episode number 224. We operate as a tripartite cast of potters or pod of casters. And I'm Johnny Gamber on hosting duties, joined by Andy Welfle and Tim Wasem. Hey, guys.
Hello. A tripartite cast.
I can't believe you got that in the first try. Yes.
That would take Tim like, like six takes.
I practice.
You're just laying there like peep. Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, now, brown cow. Yeah. Get all warmed up.
So, for folks who missed our Patreon pen podcast, that was last month. It's been a little while since we broadcasted our graphite signal into the inter ether. You know, a lot's happened, like tariffs up, tariffs down, blah, blah, blah, blah. But the cool thing that happened was erasable turned 11 last month. Yeah. Which would normally be cause for some sort of like, you know, retrospective or meta. What's the meaning of pencil blogging thing. So instead we thought what we would do is look back at our 11 year old selves because we turned 11 and also 11. It's a really formative age. You start middle school, maybe pens. So we thought we'd check out what were we into back then. Our ages are far enough apart that our answers probably won't be the same thing because technology was moving pretty quickly back then. So we're going to skip the tools of the trade because today's probably going to get personal anyway and go right to fresh points. So how about Mr. Green Hat? Tim, would you like to go first?
Sure. My son's 11. He's about to turn 12. And today that is a very 11. That's right. Had a very 11 experience, which is he woke up with a pimple the size of a dime on his chin with his first like gigantic pimple, like right there.
Oh, it's only get worse from here for several years.
What do I do? It's like, well, shower once in a while now use soap. No. Yeah.
So he's time machine.
Yeah.
Time machine. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'll start us out with a whole bunch of new field notes and I don't know what you all have. I have one of these on order already, which is the first one I'll talk about, which is the new Bonaver field notes that came out that matches.
You've been saying Bon Iver.
I mean, not out loud.
The only reason I know how to say it is because of Northern Exposure, which is where he got the name, which I figured out after.
Oh, I didn't know that.
There's. Yeah, there's an episode of A Northern Exposure where it's like some. I'll have to look it up. But it's like some winter celebration. And so there's this whole episode where they're walking around to each other, they're saying, Bonaver. Like, and that's, like, what they're saying. And that was where we got the name. So then I found Bonaver, the band. And then I was like, it's like the thing from Northern Exposure.
I like that guy better now that I know it's a Northern Exposure reference.
Yeah, he was, like, apparently watching the Boat of Air or The Northern Exposure DVDs or something, maybe when he was, like, in his, like, hold up phase up in the woods when he was making that first album. Yeah. But the new field notes match the album cover, which is a very cool kind of, like, super minimal design. The color. I heard him interviewed on. I think it was Fallon. He's like, it's salmon. People say, oh, you have a pink album.
He's like, no, it's famous for Alaska, like, Northern Exposure
connections, but apparently I haven't seen these pictures yet. But he said in the interview that, like, when he's been out doing press for the album, he carries, like, an actual fish with him. Like, I said, like, a lot like a live salmon. Just for that purpose. Just so you can take. No, it's salmon. Like, the fish. See it right here? It's like a dead fish in his hand, like,
yesterday. Now it's a little gray.
Yeah. So. So let's look.
Let's come with, like, what's. What are the field notes, like, musician collaborations they've done? It's like, there's just like, Jeff Tweedy. There's like, the, like, Wilco.
Jason isbel Bonaver. So they only have a few of my favorite artists left to do.
And also, we're just doing, like, all the white.
Oh, yeah. Who's that?
The larger Maggie Rogers. They're sort of like.
Rogers was like, is there anybody but, like, white men who they're, like, collaborating with? But get some dochi collaborations.
I feel like there's got to be others, but.
Yeah, that we know about.
Yeah, but, yeah, yeah, but those are, like, the official ones, so. Yeah, I like these. I have these. I ordered two packs. They come in two pack. They come in a two Pack. I ordered two of them. Two. Two packs. So I'm pretty excited about these. Just graph paper. They look really good.
I was gonna say, is it like a salmon lined color?
That'd be really cool. I assume that's what I mean. I see the picture. I didn't look. It's a. Yeah. Innards feature a graph grid in a matching salmon color.
Nice.
So there you go.
Yeah.
Yes. So the one that I had ordered yet, but I probably will, is the new. Do you guys have these in hand? The new limited edition release, the Chicago. I don't have them. The Chicago ones, so. I mean, I have them, but I don't. Stuck.
Here's the postcard.
They're getting a lot of hate.
Yeah, it's.
Is it because of the shape? Yeah, yeah.
I mean I like. I like the proportions.
Yeah.
It's.
So it's six by eight, which I feel like is somewhere it's between. Like there's the regular size and like the arts and sciences size. Right. That's the.
It's bigger than the arts and sciences.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Okay. Yeah.
Something like that.
I don't know where I put mine. So like it's a pretty specific theme. Like I. So I'm like. Grew up not too far from Chicago. Not as close as, you know, Tim did, but like just like a couple hour drive. And this like doesn't like really strike me. It doesn't resonate with me. I don't really know much about like the hand painted signed scene of Chicago. It's cool. I think it's a neat. It's very field notes. Right. Like it's Chicago. It's like like hand painted signs in industry. But like, I wouldn't say that. It's something that like just. I see. And it doesn't hold sort of like that universal appeal.
Right. Yeah. Chicago, like connection is my like main connection to it. It's not like. Because I'm the same way. Yeah. I live closer. But like nothing about. I was like, oh man, this is so Chicago. But whatever, you know, but. Sorry, Johnny, go ahead.
An extended family member who was a sign painter, a hand signed painter until he retired like 10 or 15 years ago.
Yeah.
It's amazing. I know a guy who does sign painting and it's amazing to watch with that little like thing that they put on to keep their hands steady while they go. And it just like. Yeah. Requires so much coordination and like such a steady hand.
Yeah. This guy was like one of the nicest people I've ever met in my life. He's like, so kind. Always had a cardigan sweater on. Very cuddly. Perfect.
That's. That is an odd size. I didn't realize it was six by eight. I didn't look that close. Now I see it. But like, I mean, that takes it firmly out of, like, pocket territory.
Yeah, right.
Yeah, it's closer to, like, real. A five size. Yeah, like, when I make a five books, they're eight and a quarter by five and three quarters, so almost the same. And like, that extra width, like, versus a moleskin is really nice.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It'd be an interesting one for keeping like a journal in or something for a trip. Because it's a nice size. It's pretty thin, but. But yeah.
Wish I could figure out where I put mine.
They came with a pin, but they also came with a postcard that they didn't mention, which was cool.
Oh, yeah, yeah, I saw that pin. The. What does it say? I was just looking at it. Wall Dogs forever.
Yeah.
I don't get it, but it's funny.
Yeah, I like it. I don't get it. So.
Because the book sort of fits in with my vintage French notebook switcher in a size they call a five plus. Or Claire Fontaine calls it that these days.
A five plus. Yeah, I have to.
Little extra width is really nice.
I need to send you guys a picture. My. A buddy of mine who listens to the podcast, Johnny. He not, you know, different Johnny. I know more than one, actually. I'm related to like 90.
This Johnny doesn't listen to the podcast.
No, never have. But he. He works at a local church and was going through like. It's an old church and was like, going through and like, clearing out closets or something. And he's really into this stuff and he sent me a picture of this. I'll put it in the chat. But it was these notebooks that he found that were obviously old. There we go. It's a. It just says Columbia Composition book. They don't look fancy or anything. But I'm super curious about it. He said, I found these ancient composition books in the office. Oh, whoa.
Oh, yeah.
So I'll let you know how they turn out. I don't know how many he found, but. Cool. And I looked something up, actually. I couldn't really find anything about them, but so.
So that little like three line, sort of like divider that's there. Do you know what the typographical term for that is?
No.
It's a dinkus.
Dinkus.
D I N K U S A Random thing.
Good band name. Yeah.
Well, when I was. I think I talked about. When I was trying to figure out a name for my, like, that new blog that I'm doing, I named it Asterisms, which is a kind of Dinkus. And I was at first thinking about calling my blog Dinkus, but I was just like. And like, getting like, D I n k.us as a domain name. And I was just like, I can't call. I can't call my blog the Dink. I'm going to put it up on the Dinkus. Check out my new post on the Dinkus.
The Dinkus. The what now?
Yeah, you know,
posting your dinkus on your blog. My Dink Party.
All right, there's that and there's one more. One more new field notes, which is the burr. So I couldn't say it straight. The burbs, I was gonna say, which I. I was. It just makes me think of the movie, the Tom Hanks movie, but the. Yeah, the new Birds and Trees of North America editions. I didn't know these existed until minutes ago. So what do you guys. What do you guys think of these? I mean, I. I don't have nine different notebooks.
Yeah, I don't have the new ones on hand, but I really like these notebooks. I actually, the one I just filled up, my episode notebook and I'm using one of them as, like, I think I'm using the. Well, this one for those. So, by the way, if you have Patreon, you can see our video. I really like the texture. I think the texture is really nice. I like that they're lined. They have that kind of like, big, wide line that they. I think they kind of premiered with American the Beautiful with that sort of like double line at the top. So, yeah, I like these. I like these a lot. I think they're perfect for spring.
Are these. As far as you know, are these going to be like a ongoing thing like they did with the.
I was trying to figure that out. I. It seems like maybe they're going to go for a while.
Right?
Like, it's. I'm trying to remember what this. Like, what. Okay, so this was fall. It's funny, this was a fall edition last year, and this just looks very springy to me. Like, I would have thought they would put that out in the spring. So. Yeah, I don't know if they've. Johnny, have you heard. Did they say, is this a permanent, Permanent mission?
I mean, I would wondered if they'd go with birds that were all the sports Teams. They had the Oreos.
Oh, yeah. Because Oreos. Are there any sports teams called the Owls?
It's the Blue Jays.
Should be.
Yeah, there's gotta be.
If there's not.
Yeah, there should be.
So. Yeah, Rex Brasher, the. The artist who died in 1960. He's.
Yeah, he's.
He's kind of where they came from. I'm looking at their website right now. Yeah, I don't see anything about this being a permanent mission, but you never know.
Fly catchers would be a really good baseball team. Name.
They have to do Ravens. I put that in my order notes when I.
That'd be cool.
Ordered them. Sorry.
Well, they had ravenswing, so all the Ravens.
All the time.
Yeah, Just all the time I was standing. Oh, good.
I tacked a new thing on there. They redid their pencils again.
Yeah, I have one here.
They have an orange eraser and they're like, really nice.
Yeah.
And now they redid their carpenter pencils in bright orange. Like orange orange.
Oh, wow. Like a draplin color. I think they also. Correct me if I'm wrong. I don't have any of the old ones in front of me. But is this feral different?
Just.
It's a more kind of like standard.
Standard Ferrell. It's got a little fancy stuff going on.
Yeah. Pretty minimalist.
Yeah.
The eraser is really good.
And the eraser's functional. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool.
Trying to figure out a little darker. Yeah, it kind of says where they. Okay, here's the notes on the barrel. Unfinished smooth wood barrel. Semicolon more ornate aluminum ferrule. Non toxic imprint. And hey, why not an orange eraser this time? But it says in the barrel. Very good.
I like that they tied in with the carpenter pencils. Yeah, I appreciate that.
I had a pretty awesome interaction with a raven or with a crow the other day.
In the house. Yeah.
Our neighborhood. Neighborhood's just like overrun. They're everywhere. But I was cleaning out our garage and I came out of our garage door and I looked to the right and there was a crow that was. Just came around our trash can and just started walking towards me but didn't notice I was standing there. It got, I don't know, two feet away, two and a half feet away. And he just stopped. Looked up real slow at me, stared at me for a second and kept staring at me and just took like two steps back and very slowly turned and just walked away. It's like he didn't fly away. He was just like there.
Yep. I'm Gonna go, I gotta go see
a man about a horse.
Weird.
It was so weird and human. I was just like. It was just like, o, yeah, sorry, buddy. You just backed out and walked away.
Corvids are cool. They are so smart. And yeah, I've definitely, like left little baubles and stuff out on like tables for them and hopefully made crow friends. Like, I've never been dive bombed by a crow, so maybe that's why you haven't lived.
You've been dive bombed by a crow. To show you the chunky, this is
an ear implant right here.
Trump was copying off me.
All right, well, that's all I got. So Andy.
Yeah, go for it. One thing I wanted to mention is it is coming up on spring and that means it is a good time to be a $10 a month Patreon subscriber with her. So we try to like every year do a little thing. Like last year we did our musette bags with the, with that like painting of a Washington Monument, but a pencil on it. This year I think we're going to go back to basics a little bit. I haven't quite figured this one out, but I have a really cool little illustration that a friend of the show, Betsy Streeter, made. I will not spoil the image, but I think we want to put it like on a hat or on a lapel pin or something like that. And so. Yeah, well, those will be free for 10 month Patreon subscribers. You'd probably want to do it in the month of April in order to get it in by May. And. Yeah, and then we'll have kind of the rest of them for sale up somewhere and kind of announce it here. But one thing that's kind of fun that I was trying out a new print vendor, kind of one of those on demand print vendors that do a lot of embroidery. And I was just like, I'm gonna make some little like corduroy hats. So if you can see.
Cool.
If you are a Patreon subscriber of any amount, you can see some video for this. We're just recording a zoom and they, they took our. I put in our like two color logo for a dark background which has the white pencil. And then erasable is the erasable banner is still in red. And put that on like a corduroy cap. I have a blue one here and ordered some samples and sent some to Johnny and Tim. So hopefully we'll be able to like model them for you in a future episode. And so, yeah, we might put that one up for Sale too. Just a regular old logo cap. It's really nice. It's very like I've never had a corduroy ball cap before and yeah, I just like the look of it. It's a little bit tiny bit dressier. I'm not a huge hat guy, but I take my inspiration from Tim.
Yeah, it'll also protect you from.
I'll do that.
Dive bombs by from crow Dive bombs.
Yeah, that's right.
Not my ears.
Protect your sweet eye jelly.
Yeah, your eye jelly safe. And your precious bodily fluids is keeping you.
Keep that jelly safe. Episode title. Anyhow, we'll put this up on for sale here eventually soon. And yeah, and so if you are thinking about being a 10amonth patreon subscriber, please, please do that before May. And then also if you. And then also please continue being a Patreon subscriber for a little while. And then if you are currently a 10amonth subscriber whose name we will read at the end of this episode, please make sure your shipping address in Patreon is up to date because I will use that to send out stuff probably sometime in the middle ish of May. So yeah, just some episode business. It's going to be really fun. Really cool. Oh yeah, also the Johnny, did you mess with my show notes? No, no. Did I spell it like this? I'm talking about the Pinto Black Polyamory 999. Sorry 669. Yeah, I don't know how that happened.
He accidentally deleted it and he was just trying to fix it like.
Oh God. Oh God. I autocorrect. Yeah, just autocorrect. I've been messing around. I think I mentioned this last time I got a package in the mail from stuff that I bought from John Morris and I bought one of These Pentel Black Polymer 999s which is a fairly like rare ish sought after pencil. And it is really nice. I. It's like lighter weight and scratchier than I was expecting. It's like not quite as scratchy as like a Valarco, but it is scratchy but also like it is also very like dark. Like it lays down a really nice line. Yeah, I'm just really enjoying this and I'm probably going to put it away before it gets too small. Like it's still pretty, pretty long. I don't want to quite get it to the Steinbeck stage but just put it away in the archives. So yeah, if anybody has. I think you were mentioning Johnny, this was something that I completely forgot about. But they did. They made for a while the craft designer technology pencils. So they had the special editions that were in that, that kind of like seafoam green color.
Yeah. 15 years ago or something before the pencil store. Because by then they were made by Camel.
Yeah, yeah, they stopped making these, I think they said, in 2011. I read, I was reading there's a really good. A few blog posts from Pencil Talk where Steven's talking about them and yeah, I think he said that they discontinued them in 2011. And yeah, they've since started making the craft design technology pencils in. Yeah, for Camel. But they're very nice too. Still that color that Johnny loves. But he's making retching faces at the camera right now. Yeah. And then I guess last thing I'll mention is just something cool that I picked up. Friend of the show, Gary Varner, who has wound down the Note Guist reseller, has started up the Note Geist bindery where he makes. Mostly, I think he just makes little pocket notebooks.
Right.
I don't think he does like hardbacks or anything. Johnny, is that right?
I think he was doing like larger format.
Okay, I think I'll check that out.
Yeah, I think I might remember that wrong. But they were like, you know, that style. Like the new field notes. Yeah. But before they came out.
He's using just the thread stitching for these, but he's had a series of, I think he calls them limiteds, where he just makes kind of some small batches. And this one he had, he did a series called by the Bay, which is like, he found a graphic of like a cool vintage map of San Francisco, like a kind of like a tourist looking map and just like put these on the COVID So I ordered a few of these from him and they have like different like places on the map where they were cut out. So yeah, if you're. Well, I guess I should check and see if they still have them in stock. But yeah, if you're anywhere in any way connected to San Francisco, this might be a fun, fun one to pick up. So. And then it has just like a nice kind of dot grid on the inside. So thank you, Gary, for putting those together. That is my fresh points. How about you, Johnny?
So I only have a couple. One of them is that I have a new website because I got really tired of Shopify being so ugly. And like, you know, if you listen to podcasts, you probably hear Squarespace ads ten times a day. So it worked on me and I switched to Squarespace, which was this Episode
is not brought to you by Squarespace.
Yeah, they're really horrible shipping. That I didn't realize was a thing. They don't. You know, if you mail anything on the Internet, you know that you don't pay retail ever, except if you have a Squarespace store. So farm that out to, like, ship station or something, or otherwise people are not going to want to buy stuff.
Johnny, you should use Pirate Ship. If you don't use pirate ship. That's what I use for both for my pencil, my zine website, and then also if we sell something through the erasable website.
I use.
Yeah, I use Pirate Ship.
It's pretty good.
Yeah. I think there's some integration, too.
Yeah, it goes right into Ship Station. But then Ship Station is not free.
Yeah.
Another monthly bill.
Pirate ship is free
account thanks you. Or my new business thanks you. But one thing that I wanted to do is get it up by pencil day because my oldest son really got into crocheting. And, like, we'll create these little they're so cute thingies and then clothes. So the Baltimore Museum of Art, here in their contemporary art wing, put on a show of Baltimore city school students art. And on a table was a circle of cats that he made. There were, like, a fireman, a chef, and, like, they were so cool. And then they got lost. He. He got a letter from the city saying they were on a truck, and the truck flipped over, so they're gone.
What?
And he's, like, heartbroken. I was like, well, good. You just sold your first art piece because, like, they have insurance, but it turns out they had, like, signed some sort of waiver, whatever. But he just really wanted back.
Yeah.
Wow.
But I talked him into making some feral heads of the comic from the scene I used to do. So he made, like, a pile of them. There's still a couple left to do
commissions in different pencil colors. Like, this one should look like a blue golden bear.
Yeah.
How about you could sell those.
These were the first thing that he ever sold that he created. And, yeah, I don't. These should be, like, five bucks. They take you, like, an hour or two to make. That's not how that works. Yeah, I think set it on, like, 12, which I thought was kind of low. Yeah. But, yeah, that was fun. He felt really good, and I owe him a bunch of money because that's how it got paid. But so for my last thing, Narwhal put out a. Was it the 365 thing where they make 365 pens and it's like, something like crazy. So they did a fully titanium Nautilus right around Christmas time, and they put an Ebonite feed in it, which was cool. And they've redid the clip because the clip on those things is kind of doo doo. So it's spring loaded. So they put out a black one that's not a limited edition. And it's like, I didn't realize quite how black it was until it came. The entire thing is black except for the little windows where you can see the ink. Oh, cool. So it's really heavy and, like, beefy and so awesome.
So you're saying it's none more black? Yes.
It's even, like, matte black.
Had to work in a spinal tab reference. When I hear something about something, it was so black. How much more black could it be?
I don't have that one on me, but I do have one.
Let's turn up the letter.
I don't know if you can see this.
Oh, yeah.
Cap and barrel are one clean line. And the clip is that which makes me so happy.
Barrel's so clean it looks invisible.
Yeah, like, yeah. Wonder Woman's plane.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They're like, on a roll. They put out some cherry blossom pens, which aren't pink, they're blue. I don't get it. I didn't get one, but I like that they did it. It was pretty neat.
Yeah.
I don't know if there's a 365 or whatever, but. Yeah.
What's a good. What's a good beginner narwhal pen to get, like, I don't think I own any narwhal pens.
I think the original and the original plus are like 50 or 60 bucks. Rosie has one. It's a really nice pen. The original is a piston like the other pens. The original plus is a vac. So you get to like, no rod down. Yeah. But I mean, I'd get a Nautilus if you can find a sweet deal on one because they're like. They're just so nice. Yeah.
Where do those sweet deals show up
sometimes?
Like from them?
No, they never have good sales, but ebay will have, like, someone got one and they don't like the nib size and they forgot that the nibs are interchangeable. So, like, I've seen a couple colors that I already own go for like, insane deals on there. They were tempting, but they also added with cherry blossom, they added extra fine for a point size.
Oh, nice.
So now they do extra fine, medium, bold, double bold, and stub, which Is awesome.
What is the stub, Right? Like.
Like a calligraphy pen.
It's cool.
Okay.
It's like if you're writing. My writing is like, really been deteriorating in the last few years, but with that, it looks pretty good. Yeah, it's just big. Yeah, but that helps. The only downside of those pens is they hold so much ink. It's. Oh, man, I don't know what I want to put in this.
You're gonna commit to that color. Yeah.
And after a week, you're like, I'm tired. Look at this. But they. They seal wells. You can seal them up for a month and open them right. Right away.
Yes.
They're not paying me for this. I give them a lot of money. They have gold nibs now, which I've heard are not a vast improvement over their steel nibs. So keep the price under $200 or right around. Yeah. So that's.
I just refilled for the first time in like a year, my TWSBI 580. The like dark aluminum. 580 ALR. So R is for ribbed.
Did you hear about your writing pleasure?
For your writing pleasure. It's the. It's got a little ribbon action right there.
Yeah.
This thing holds a crapload of ink. That's why I was thinking of that.
Yeah. So Twispy sued Narwhal, Oh. A year or two ago. Serves them right for patent infringement because they were making piston pens, but the patent for piston pens, like, expired before I was born.
Oh, wow.
So when that didn't work, they reached out to their retailers and they said, you can't carry Twisby pins if you also carry Narwhal. And obviously it backfired and Narwhals were on back order and like, now they've taken off.
Is that the one that made them change their name or was that a different lawsuit situation? Wasn't. Didn't they change their name from.
They changed this.
Who am I thinking of? Oh, I'm thinking of Moon man or whatever like that ended up. Oh, yeah, yeah. Because it was. Sorry. Combine the two, which are like being a bully.
Yeah. But yeah, this. I think this was on a fountain pen Revolutions blog or something like that. I'm like, this is fake. No way. This really happened. But you can't do that. So they were like, we're selling off our twsbies for like, hot discount. Like, we don't want anything to do with them anymore. Okay. They still make some really cool looking limited editions.
Yeah, man. Twisby they're out for blood.
Yeah. People on Reddit like love them or hate them, like, oh, minecrack. And they gave me a new one as long as I paid shipping.
Like, okay, I've had like nine and I've never had one. Craig. It's like when people complain about like Gibson guitars, like the headstocks crack was like. Yeah. If you drop on the floor like a. Sorry.
Oh, usually the complaint I hear about guitars is they're not offender.
Yeah, I agree with that.
Yeah.
But yeah. So you guys want to jump into the main topic?
Yeah, let's do that.
Okay. So I hope these questions are copacetic. I didn't read them over, but I suppose for context, like, when were you 11? Because I think there's a nine year age gap between us. So this is a very different answer.
I was 11 in 1994.
Oh man.
And I. So when you're 11, you're in sixth grade. Is that right?
Most people? I think so.
I think so. Yeah. So yeah, 1994. I feel like that's just like the golden age of like all of those sort of like 90s kid kind of that, like that Nickelodeon style, like slime kind of kind of aesthetic.
I don't know.
The slime aesthetic. Yeah.
You know, you know what I mean? The slime aesthetic.
Oh yeah, totally. Yeah. Yeah. I turned 11 in 80. Or sorry, in 98.
Oh my God.
Yeah. When were you 11?
90. Yeah.
We're all born at different ages.
We're all the same.
I feel like a lot happened. So when I was in sixth grade, the go to pencil were like cheap American pencils that now, you know, I look back with nostalgia and I love them.
Yeah.
But like we didn't use computers at school or at home. That was still a thing when you had a computer lab at your school.
Yeah, we had those green screen Apple iis at my school like the like we did probably. I mean most schools, they're probably still using it when you were Tim. Like, yeah, for sure.
ES elementary was rocking those until like I was in fourth grade or something.
I. I'm pretty sure, like, you know, kind of the one by far the thing that on my blog has been on Wood Clinch has been read the most is the thing about Yikes Pencils. And I think that 94 was like just like peak, like Yikes Pencils and peak like the 90s trapper keepers kind of the last. Kind of the last iteration of them with all the like kind of crazy designs. I think about it as like the Napoleon Dynamite aesthetic. Like, that was very in at that point.
Yeah.
Yeah. We weren't allowed to have binders at my school back then. Yeah, I would have loved it.
Yeah.
I feel like later, when I got to middle school, like, they outlawed a few of those things, like. Like, some of the Trapper Keepers, just because they were just big and they took up a lot of room.
And he's corrupting the youth. Yes. All those colors.
Yeah.
To number two, like.
Yeah.
What were the required school supplies for you when you were 11? Or were there. Were they as specific as they are now?
Definitely not. But I was just gonna say before we move on that, Andy, I. Today, as I was preparing for this, I just Google searched late 90s kids stationary, and your blog post was like, result number eight. It was, like, right there at the top.
I seriously get so many hits from that. Like, even. Like, I haven't updated that blog in years, and I still get, like. Yeah, so much from there. So I don't know. I think I was just in the right place at the right time and got the good SEO juice.
Yeah. Yeah. Mine were not specific at all. I remember growing up, mine were just, like, number two pencil. Yeah, just get it here. But I will say that it was, like, 90 mechanical. I mean, just like, it was like, big deal. Like the. Just the. The Bic, like the plain bicycle, you know, mechanical pencils were just, like, littered all over the place. Like, they're all over every school, every classroom. You'd sit down on a desk and there'd be shards of plastic in the corner from somebody who had, like, broken one to pieces.
The big clicks. Yeah.
Yep.
Yeah. I'm trying to think mine was specific in that. Like. Like in. In quantity. And. Oh, gosh, I'm trying to remember. So I went to Catholic school in the lower grades. We definitely used, like, those kind of chunky, like those Dixon. I can't remember what the model is, but, like those. Yeah, one of those kind of things.
My first Taekondara or whatever.
Yeah, well, we didn't use that. They were. They had a. They didn't have a captain or an eraser to end or anything. And they were, like, dark blue, and they said Dixon on them. I can't remember what the brand is, but, like, I want to say like, a Dixon. Oh, man. I'll have to look it up and see if I can.
Were they the leady laddies used to be blue?
It could have been.
Could have been a Laddie.
And my first Ticonderogas were black when I was a kid.
Oh, Interesting. Maybe.
They were so pretty.
Okay. Yeah, Interesting. But, yeah, once I got up to, like, kind of middle schoolish.
Yeah.
I think a lot of the kids had the bit clicks mechanical pencils, and I think that they were probably, like, in some pretty, like, cool 90s colors. So I think that we all had a lot of those.
The ones that had the, like, metallic gray tips instead of the white ones were, like, a hot. In my school, like, the ones that weren't where they didn't have, like, the clear white, they had, like, that sort of gunmetal gray kind of end. Those were like, the ones everybody's like, yeah, that's cool. Yeah, that's why I want to be around. I grew up.
I did have some personalized, like, some.
Were they, oh, very prescriptive at your Catholic school?
Not really. I don't think. I don't think they were super prescriptive about that. They. In fourth grade, we started being able to use pens, and so we definitely, like, had. By sixth grade, we had a lot of pens, and I. I think I just had a lot of like, just like, bit crystals. I think that's kind of what my parents bought me. But I did have. This was not, like, like, standard fare or anything, but I definitely had a Fisher space pen that I got at the. The Cleveland Museum of Science and Industry. And it was so cool. It's like I could write underwater. I could write upside down, like, and. Yeah, you can write in a bathtub. You can write at home. You can write at work.
You can write at home. Sorry. I'm never gonna stop. I'm never gonna stop.
Yeah. So. Yeah, they weren't. I don't think we were. They were prescription about notebooks. Like, I. And folders. Like, folders that you put stuff in. Like, I think that you weren't supposed to have, like, like, commercial franchises on your folders. Like, they didn't want you to come in with, like, Little Mermaid folders or whatever. And then I know my notebooks were, like, very specifically, like, the one subject, like, solid color notebooks, because they wanted something that was the same size as our, like, planners that, like, homework planners that they would hand out.
Yeah.
We kind of stuck those all together. Whoa. Yeah. Oh, wow. Tim.
Yeah.
Tim.
And just in the Zoom Chat, shared some Garfield.
I remember all the Garfield stuff in the stationary world. Oh, my gosh. This one is. And I don't remember this one specifically, but I already, like, regret not having it when I was a kid. Yeah. He says he's wearing. What would. We would now Call like a VR headset or something.
It's like gauntlet on.
Yeah. But it's like made of metal, so he looks like Thanos doing VR or something. It says, my virtual dog ate my homework document files.
That just rolls off the tongue. My homework documentary.
My homework. Oh, no, my homework document files.
And they really. I feel like they really missed an opportunity to make OD look because it's OD on a computer screen. I feel like they should have made him look a little bit more digital.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, they could have done something.
Jim Davis, what are you thinking?
Come on, man. Yeah.
From Indiana. Fellow Hoosier Jim Davis.
When I started middle school, we had. We went to a new school and we had this really sadistic nun named Sister Trinita who, like, rumors were that she was a drill sergeant in a former life.
Is she the one who called you a wiggle worm?
No, that was Sister Teresa Marie Rose.
Yeah.
But Trinita gave us this huge, like, orientation, and our school was in a black neighborhood, and it wasn't like a super white school, so she decided it was dangerous, even though there were never fights or anything like that. So we had to have clear pencil cases. And this is before mesh. So, like, you know, they lasted a month. And you had to buy a new one because they kept breaking but batter really easily. We had to have two sharp yellow number two pencils and one pink eraser. That was all we can have in it until she decided we could use pens again. And she gave us a speech about holding your pencil between your index finger and your thumb and resting it on your middle finger, which was the wrong way to describe a triangle grip. And like, I was in my late 30s before I realized that's what she was getting at because I could never do it.
We had those, like.
Yeah, they handed out those.
They handed out those, like, little pencil holders that look like a wad of gum that you would put on your pencil. And it was ergonomic.
Never.
I was left handed. And I was either the only or one of two, like, left handed kids in my class because I think we only had a couple in my grade. And I, like, was just. I just remember being so frustrated because it's like, hey, this person who doesn't know how to, like, this right handed teacher is trying to, like, tell me how I'm supposed to be writing left handed. And they don't know because, yeah, it was. That was really frustrating. But yeah, you're right. Like, a regular old triangle grip would have been great. But, like, they had those really like right handed, ergonomic, like, like chewing gum looking things.
Yeah, we weren't allowed to have any of that stuff. Not eraser caps.
Yeah.
When we did geometry, they collected our compasses and put them in envelopes. They were like, it's such a shame because you guys will stab each other with them. I'm like, I'm holding a sharp pencil, which is.
Yeah, like two sharp pencils, but not too sharp.
I definitely like. Yeah, we would have those pink pearl erasers and I would always like kind of doodle on mine. So I would put a little like face on it and just like little legs on the side and make like a little eraser monster.
Put a pen or a pencil into it and just kind of keep turning it until it kind of bores a hole into it. One side that's got all these holes bored, poured into it. It's like a mess. You flip it over and it's like perfect. You're like, thank you, everyone. Yeah, I'll be here all week. I did it. Yeah, I did.
Later. Well, well, after I was 11, my mom let me buy those art gum erasers. The kind that like, not the art gum, the kneadable ones. The kind that's basically like just a little bit of like silly Putty. But it's an eraser. And I would. I was very responsible at school. I would like just sort of like fidget with it, but very like subtly so people didn't watch me do it. And then when I like, you know, do that. But it was a nice fidget toy, for sure.
I would steal those off my mom's drafting table, like in her office, like where she did her. And then I would just roll them into a ball and bounce them.
Yep, they do good bounce. What did your mom do? I didn't realize. She drafted.
She did architectural renderings. So she would do pencil and like she had microns all over the house, but she would do like a pencil drawing off of a blueprint basically. And then she would draw it in pencil and pen, like she. Well, pencil. And then she'd do like a pen, ink it over, draft or whatever you say. And then she watercolor.
Interesting. That's cool. Yeah. Yeah.
Explains a lot.
Yeah.
So what did you guys do with your stationery when you weren't in school? Because I'm like, in that part of your life, at least for me, a lot of times I didn't want to touch it outside school because that was school stuff. And. Yeah, you know, I didn't have a job so it's not like I needed to.
Trying to think if I have, well, oh, I'm gonna go grab something from a bookshelf.
In 1996, this movie came out. I'm going somewhere with this movie came out. Called it Harriet the Spy. Oh, yeah, I remember the one thing you said. What do I use stationery for afterwards. I was thinking about this earlier because I was like, man, I loved composition notebooks. Why did I love composition? And the reason was because in Harriet the Spy that was what she carried around with her and like wrote all of her findings when she was like doing like detective cases. And she would have this Marvel composition notebook. And I remember watching that and like, not that I love the movie that much, but I just like started carrying one around with me and like drawing stuff down in it. You know, I would like list out like, oh, this would. It would just be random stuff, which is exactly what I do now with my field notes. I'd just be like, oh, if I had a baseball team, who would be the starting, starting lineup, you know, and you write it down and then just forget about it.
I remember, I remember, yeah, reading Harriet the Spy and then later seeing the movie RIP Michelle Trachtenberg. She died. Oh, yeah. Like just a few weeks ago.
I saw that headline.
Yeah.
X.
So there was that book. There was this other book, this children's book, and I cannot remember the name of it, but it's this boy who goes to this fancy private school and he goes around talking about how he's the, the son of like some diplomat of a country. And he goes around and he just like writes a bunch of stuff in like a notebook just about everybody. And he's supposed to like see this and it. I think maybe it turns out that he's just full of crap. But like it's. Yeah, it's. I'm going to look up that. The name of that book and maybe put it in show notes. But it was pretty good.
I really enjoyed this kid.
Yeah, I have a. So I still have a notebook that this is. I think this might have been before sixth grade, but I bought this like really cool like old journaly book. And you can kind of see. So if you're looking at it, it's just like. It reminds me of one of those like Emilio Braga books. It's a flying eagle book made in China. And it just has like, just line pages and it's just a really nice like, like book bound notebook. And I used a label makers.
Yeah, looks like those red black books that they have at office. Is it Office Depot or something like that?
Could be, yeah.
Is that what they're called? Red and black? I don't think that's what it is but just reminded me of that.
It looks a lot like it.
Yeah.
Yeah. So my best friend at the time, Brandon, he and I made this. It was. We watched Bedknobs and Broomsticks, that old Disney movie with Angela Lansbury and she's like a witch and she enchants stuff and we made ourselves a spell book. So in like the label makers that you know you crank the dial and press, press it in. We had this wood grain label maker and it says Andy and Brandon's Book of Magic Spells and Potions by Andy W. And Brandon. Because there's there was another Andy in the class. So I was excited. So we did have the Star of Astaroth which was from. From that in the front of our book and we had several. You can see us just a lot of the like the doodling and like trying some stuff out. So I'll see if I can post a couple of these pictures in. That's super cool chat. But one of the things that I really loved that I just. And remembering just from seeing this is I had some of those like. They're kind of like the preppy fountain pens. I don't remember what they were called in the 90s if it was those but it's one of those. This old disposable fountain pens and I had them in like a few. Just really bright colors. Varsity. Yes. Yes. I love those things. My, my mother would just buy as a treat buy me some just like of those cheap fountain pens and I don't know how many of them I wrecked but yeah, I was definitely in the between fourth and sixth grade.
Yeah.
Using a lot of fountain pens.
That's cool.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So this is a non school stationary notebook or stationary that I was using. Trying to think of what else. I had a lot of the re. Rig binders with like starships in them.
I was a binder guy. Like I had outside of school. I kept binders of like. I mean there's like baseball cards and stuff too. Yeah, of course that I kept in binders. But I also remember getting my own computer for the first time and then being able to like print because my dad gave me like this like janky old printer and I used to go like the early days of being able to get on the Internet and look up guitar chords and tablature and stuff and just printing out page.
You really haven't changed in how many years have you?
No.
And then I put it in like the three ring, like sleeves. Like it. Slide it in. I put it on both sides and I'd make like a whole book like, of just songs that I like. Wanted to learn how to play.
I did something similar, but I designed starships in Mac paint. And I would print them out and put them in sleeves.
That's cooler in my notebook.
No, it's not cooler. What are you talking about? Star Trek nerd and sixth grade.
I found. Hang on, I'll be right back. Okay. I gotta show you something. Johnny, what about you just talk amongst yourselves?
Yeah. What were you doing for non school stationary?
I don't remember. Like, I used to just draw a lot of like, aircraft I was really into.
That's cool.
Planes. Yeah. I wanted to be a pilot before I realized my eyesight was too bad. And also, like, I don't like flying.
Two things that are probably important.
Yeah. Our school was so strict, I just avoided using stuff outside when I could. Yeah, we couldn't have binders. We couldn't have spiral notebooks at school.
You couldn't have spiral notebooks?
Nope, not until high school. I hate spiral notebooks. Composition books.
Oh, okay.
Blue ones.
Oh yeah, the blue ones.
They were garbage.
They sure were. Remember when field notes made them? Made some like blue essay books and then like had that contest to.
Oh, the blue book things.
The blue books. Yeah. They weren't the blue composition books, but yeah, they were.
Those were cool. I think I. I sent one in and I kept one because I think.
I think the same. Yeah, I. Wow. I didn't realize. Yeah. Like, you couldn't use spiral notebooks. Those were. I didn't like them much because as a left hander my hand would always be sitting on the spiral. But yeah, those were.
Yeah. Our school was weird. We couldn't carry our backpacks in the school. Oh, yeah. But they weren't clear. I'm like, you do realize the cloak room's right there.
Yeah.
If I have a cat, I can go get it. Yeah.
Did you say cloak room?
Yeah, yeah, they used to call it the cloak room.
I was about to make a joke earlier about you guys at the Catholic schools. About like, when did you get your robes in, like your wills out? Like you're in freaking Hogwarts or something? Oh, yeah.
When I was over in the Hogwarts.
Yeah.
Okay. Yeah. All right. We still had ditto machines and those red and blue pencils. When I was in high school and middle school. Yeah, it's like the nuns, huh? Like, they turn it around and they go to the red. You're like, oh, no.
What do you have for us, Tim?
I found a remnant. So I was looking through. I found an old. A bin. I was going. I told you. I was going through my garage and cleaning some stuff out. And I found one bin that I hadn't been in a long time. It was full of some baseball cards. Like, just, like, crappy baseball cards. Henry and I got them out and we're, like, looking through them, and it was really fun. And one thing that we found in there amongst a bunch of just, like, loose sheets of cards that were, like, in the things. And I remember doing this kind of thing, too, but there was one of these sleeves, and it's a perfect representation of the things that were interesting me at the time. On one side, I had torn a page of, like, Sports Illustrated for Kids. Yeah. With Mark McGuire on it.
Yeah, like Mark McGuire.
And on the other side, I don't know what this came from, but it was clearly perforated. So I tore it out of a magazine or something. Star Wars, Han and Chewie. And at the bottom, it just says, Han Solo and Chewbacca ready for action. So that's gonna be going up soon.
Baseball.
And I also found. This is not stationary. Well, I guess you could make an argument. I found a big button that says, drugs are for dopes. You did it or I did it. I did it. Drugs are for dopes. I did it. Does that mean I did drugs?
Yeah, but drugs are just like. Did you. Did you catch the, like, double entendre when you were a kid?
No, of course not.
I wrote an essay for DARE that why Drugs are bad. And I won a prize. I got to read it.
Yeah, read it. Yeah, yeah.
Drugs are bad. Okay.
But that was. Yeah, I was very excited to find those. Yeah, I'm gonna definitely get a. Like, I'm gonna, like, wear this when I go pick my kids up from middle school. Just gonna put it on my shirt. What? It's true. I mean, most of them are. Yeah, some of them are fine now, like, you know, you have to put
it on your hat so, like, everybody sees it.
Johnny, did they have book it when you were a kid?
I don't know what that is.
Do you know. You don't know what book it is? Tim, you know what book it is, right?
Personal Pizzas from Pizza. Yeah.
So it's a national, like, child literacy program. And the more books you read, you could put, like, little stickers on this button. That's about the size of that button that Tim is showing. And when you filled up your button, take that Pizza Hut and they'll give you a personal pan pizza. Oh, I was a report cards. Okay. Oh, yeah. I used to read anyway, so for me it was great. Cause it was just like free pizzas. Like, I'd have classmates who were just like, oh, God, I had to read so many books. Just like, I was reading those books
anyway, so might as well eat some pizza.
Yeah.
So speaking of. So this is. This is a perfect segue. So we're talking about. Book it. One of the things that I was going to bring up today about stationery was, you know, like, I feel like stickers have become part of, like, the stationary world. Like, we talk about stickers, we make stickers, we like, we love stickers at Pizza Hut. One of the highlights of the Pizza Hut trip would be to go to something that looks like this, which they don't have. Like, I never see these anymore, but they were like the coolest thing were the sticker vending machines. Do you guys remember these? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
They have one locally here.
Oh, my gosh. Okay. Because I don't see them ever anymore. But I remember there'd always be like, there'd be weird ones. There'd be like this one. Like, it was. I picked this because it had like the band ones, which I was always like, I had that lip biscuit one for sure. And then I remember, like. And then there's the one next to it. It's like just a bunch of weird looking tattoo kind of things. Yeah, but they were the. And then there was all these that would say, like, clear the road, I'm 16 or something like that. Like all these like, sort of like snarky ones. It wasn't me. Who's your daddy goddess? Like, all these kind of things. These stickers are just so ugly and so weird. But, like, they were gold.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah. Just want to get stickers.
I had. There were a few that had like, different brand names of. That were made to be kind of like crude. So there was like a picture of a blue can of soda and said Poopsie on it. And yeah, I think there was one that was like Dr. Pooper. Like, just very, very sophisticated humor. Definitely low.
Definitely.
Yeah, yeah. Definitely had a poopsie sticker on something.
I definitely had this. Both this offspring sticker and this Deftone sticker.
Offsprings and deftone.
They're. These are both from those machines. I mean, you get them in the little cardboard flap and you'd open up the flap to see what you got because they were all like individually, like enclosed in cardboard. Man, that's strong.
Next time you come to Baltimore to Atomic Books, they have one of these that works and they have contemporary stickers in them.
Stickers in there?
Maybe.
Yeah. Actually this is pretty representative too. There'd also be these stickers that were just like. And like these examples I'm putting in our chat. An alien head, but in like every possible variety. Or like the smiley faces. Yeah, it's like pre emoji era, but like there'd be all these smiley faces that would have different like they just change the color or make them tie dye or something. And you just get all these holographic stickers.
I'm gonna.
Of course I'll get permission from Tim, but I'm going to see if I can put some of these in the. And then kind of the episode show notes so we can all see these guys. Yeah, for sure.
And I think I might just go on ebay and see if I can buy one of these vending machines.
That'd be fun.
You can get those pencil vending machines still.
Yeah. Okay. Johnny, hit us.
Sure. So we've sort of answered some of these, but like specifically what were some of your favorite items in or out of school, like in general when you were 11?
Yikes pencils. I loved a Yikes pencil. I. Those were just like currency, right? Like this is my precious Yikes pencil. Trying to remember. I. I mean my Fisher space pen was definitely like just a precious commodity. That thing was like. I'm sure it was like 20 bucks. And nowadays I'm like for a pen, whatever. But that's like my parents in the 90s buying their like 11 year old a $20 pen.
Not knowing like today buying you like a dying you a nautilus or something.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
So it was 10 years old or maybe even more.
Yeah, it was a lot. So yeah, I'm pretty sure like that was just like, I just remember like making sure I did not lose that at school. And then also just like. Yeah, whenever I would get like a fancy notebook out of my. My parents like kind of like the spell book and some of these that are just like, you know, more journals than they are notebooks.
Like.
Yeah, those are some of my favorite things. And I definitely even as a kid had the kind of like anxiety of like, oh, I don't know if I can like write something good enough for this to put in this notebook. This one I was able to and just beat it up. But definitely, like, yeah, I would doodle and write short stories in, like, my spiral bound notebooks and just keep, like, my other ones pristine. I also, like, maybe this is. This is related. I had a typewriter. I had a manual typewriter that was my grandmother's when I was around that age.
And mine's right up there, same thing. That's my grandmother's.
And so I would. I remember I would sit at my, like, desk in my bedroom and I had the typewriter on there and I would, like, type out. I had a few joke books, as you do when you're a kid. I don't know if you guys had joke books, but I would type out my favorite jokes into my own collection and also add my own jokes. And then I would later distribute that to my parents and be like, hey, read some jokes. So even had. Even sometimes had.
Still have that notebook.
I wish I did. I do not. I do not know where all those jokes went, but sometimes I would even do carbon copies. I had carbon paper, too, and give my parents, like, like two. Two sets of jokes.
Wow, that is next level.
Which is funny because to me that sounds like something from, like the 30s. But here I was like, you know, in my lifetime just hanging out as a kid, writing.
That's why you typing in carbon paper.
Yeah, exactly. It explains a lot why I have a pencil podcast.
Somebody gave my brother and I a huge, like, box of carbon paper because it was what we're going to do with it in the 80s. We played with it for years, so it was gone.
Scratch out secret messages in it.
Yeah, you can match GI Joe's face on it.
Yeah, exactly.
My brothers did, though, that.
Yeah, yeah. Those are some of my favorites.
How about you, Tim?
My. So I would say, like, as far as pencils go, it was always connected to what was on it. Right. Like, I was. I would have some attachment to it. Like, like Andy was talking about, like, the custom ones. That was always like, a big deal because you got them at like a truck stop or something. You'd get like, it had like a pack of 10 pencils, had your name on it. That was a big deal. Or you got it, like, got it at a Cubs game or a White Sox game and, like, got it in with the scorebook and kept it. But with the big thing, actually, for me, and I know I've talked about this a long time ago, but I don't know if I talked about this aspect, but my dad traveled a lot and he would Go to like he'd stay in hotels and I would always ask him to bring home the hotel pins.
Yeah.
And so I had a box probably of a hundred hotel pens eventually. That's pretty cool. And not just having those, but I remember like comparing them and being like, oh, that's a good one.
That must be a real fancy hotel.
Yeah. Like I would like, you know, I would know like. And those are the ones that would go to school with me. Those are the ones that would be on my desk because I was like, oh, that's like, that's solid one. The ones where it had like more of a shape to them and you're like, I get really excited about those. And then I would. Yeah. And then they're also more fun to take apart, which was also a big, big part of things. Like the ones that you could unscrew and just disassemble and put back together.
Oh yeah, it's the best. So I did have a. I can't remember which birthday it was. I think it was before I was 11. But I.
My.
For my birthday my mom got me a box of pencils with my name on it and like wooden pencils with my name on it. And they had like, like rainbow holographic wraps on it. So it was. And it wasn't like a crappy plastic wrap but like, like rainbow like printed on it. And it was holographic because it was the 90s and it was, that was pretty precious. I, I used those for years and years.
Awesome.
Yeah. What about you, Johnny? What were your favorites?
I was an army brat so I had access to a lot of like cool grown up stationary.
Oh, you got some Skillcraft pens.
Yeah, so I had those in school. But they had. I don't know how to describe this. They had these mechanical pencils that had like a feral that was polished and eraser and you would screw that part and they were like really heavy and they had these fat leads.
Do you still have any of those?
So my favorite color was blue and my brother liked green. So my dad got us each a box of our favorite color and a couple months ago he found them.
So I have somewhere so cool but like show some pictures of that.
Yeah, they were really cool. And those little green memorandum books, I used to carry those around and then like the mother load was these guys.
Crap.
Oh, I just see the city of Baltimore. It's a green screen. You're holding a green screen.
Oh yeah. I mean crap. If you Google federal supply service record book. There were these green cloth books that Say record.
So that's pretty good. Cleaning up my. What is the ruling like in there?
It's like a ledger.
Those are cool.
Blue.
Okay.
Maybe that'll show up.
Well, is it lined or is it like ledgers?
It's not gonna show up. They're lined in a non photo blue. But it's like a really heavy line.
Cool.
But this one, I think was from the odds. I found some in his garage recently that were from the 80s and 90s and the paper in them was amazing. Nice books. And even this one that's, you know, has fake banding on the spine, but it's like a nice cloth bound book with a thick cover. So I was spoiled in some ways.
Yeah.
With that kind of stuff. And then I mentioned my brother and I have been cleaning up my dad's garage because I have it on good authority that you don't want to do that after he passes away. So we're doing it always alive and he's giving us lots of stuff and we're finding so much cool stationary.
Yeah.
Like boxes of like Skillcraft pencils that have been sharpened once because he taught a class and scrolled him away as he does like 10 briefcases.
I don't think I've ever. Is it a wooden pencil?
The Skillcraft ones are like yellow. Excuse me, Yellow cedar. Cool.
I don't think I've ever seen a. I think I've just seen the Skillcraft ballpoints.
I send you guys some. I have to find them. But they were number ones and they're really nice pencils. They're ugly as all I'll get out.
That's what you expect from a government supplied pencil.
Yeah. And then later, you know, they still get that stuff, but by the end of my dad's career, you just got Office Depot and buy what you needed. Yeah, it was kind of lost all the fun.
Yeah.
He has a stash of like pilot G2s. Like gel pens.
Yeah. Nice.
Yeah. But so, you know, a lot happened between when I was 11 and when Tim was 11. But then, you know, to now we have like, you know, whole Internet and smartphones thing. Like my kids given most of their homework on a Chromebook, which breaks my heart in some ways, but we're still us. So how do you still use stationery? Because obviously we do. Wait, what most people.
I don't own anything stationary whatsoever.
So, you know, how has your stationary changed since you were in school?
Obviously I buy nicer stuff, like, because I have my own money and I. Stationary is kind of my whole Personality. So I think also I feel like, at least around here in San Francisco, I feel like there's just so much more options from Japan that has crept in. Right. Like there's like Japanese little journals and notepads and folders and stickers and stencils and there's just so much more of that than my own kind of like personal repertoire. And I feel like that's something for me at least in the last like eight to ten years is new. And I do remember like when I was a kid, like my sister would just have a lot of Sanrio stuff. So I guess, I guess there's still a lot of like hello Kitty and stuff back then. But all of the like other little stationary, like Japanese stationary thing is kind of newish. I try to buy that. But also like I. Pocket notebooks are a relatively newish thing to me. I never had a notebook this size when I was a kid, so I think that's something that's new. Within the last however long field notes has been around for me and I don't know, I still use notebooks. Like I, I don't really use spiral bound notebooks at all just because I don't like them and also like they hurt my hand left handed. Yeah. So I, I definitely like just use more like bound like journals instead of notebooks. But I do still use that. Like I take notes and notebooks in meetings and stuff. Just cuz. Yeah, I would rather do that than type.
But.
Yeah, but again, yeah, I guess there's so many things that are just in a computer now and I wish. I just don't. I don't doodle anymore. Like I used to when I was a kid. I used to doodle so much in the margins and I would draw little spaceships and draw little alien guys and draw like even like for a minute I was obsessed with perfume bottles. Like all the just really like avant garde shapes of perfume bottles that I would.
That's cool.
Like I would go, yeah. Oh yeah. I would go to like a, like a department store with my grandmother and she had a lot of like fancy perfumes. And I just remember just being fascinated by like all of the shapes and colors and things. And I didn't really like the smells that much, but I love the shapes. So I had like, I'm gonna fill
these with ink someday.
Yeah. I mean nowadays, yeah, like I go into a store, I'm like, yeah, but yeah, I would sometimes just draw like weird little designs like that and I would do things like, God, like I, I would Draw out floor plans of, like, Star Trek starships that I liked. Like, this is what the captain's quarters look like, and this is what. Just, like, all that cool stuff. So I just don't do that kind of stuff anymore, which is sad. Remember when we had Joey Caphone on and he was talking about creativity and he was like, oh, yeah, all kids are like, have kind of that creative urge, and at some point you just kind of get that, like, pushed out of you. And I feel like they have it to me. Yeah.
I feel like in some ways it's like my, like, modern use of it is. And I think it's a good thing, but it's like a constant where you're, like, weighing between. There are undoubtedly some things that I'm glad I'm doing with a computer, but, like, making sure that I'm doing things on paper that don't need a computer. You know, I don't know if I'm making sense, but, like, like finding that balance and, like, keeping that balance, which some people just.
And thinking about that balance.
Yeah, they'll just like, totally. That's gone, you know, because I think I'm just. I've always. I. I always felt since I was a little kid that there's, like, something, I don't know, sort of magical about writing something down.
Right.
Like, if, like, I remember, like, being really concerned as a kid with, like, handwriting on, like, what my handwriting looked like and what other people's hand, and there was something about, like, putting your mark down that, like, I. For whatever reason, even before we started this podcast, this is something I always held on to. So, like, my use, which, as I talked about earlier, not a whole lot different now I'm like, if I made an album of COVID songs, what would they be? And I'm like, writing down, you know, you know, doing stuff like that and making lists, which I did when I was a kid and, you know, just always had plenty of this kind of stuff. I mean, I've told the stories of, like, going through the. My dad's work, like, being my dad's work and going through the supply cabinet and just being like, ooh, pilot vision, you know, and so, yeah, my use case, like, Andy said, I buy nicer stuff, but I feel like I'm just, like, mainly just trying to hold on to what I did when I was a kid. Yeah. In a lot of ways, maybe it makes it sound much more like, intentional. I think sometimes it is intentional where I'm like, in a meeting or something. I'm like, no, this is something I should do on paper. Like, I just need to like get this down or I'll understand it better. I know myself, I know I'll understand it better if I write it down with my hand as opposed to typing out a bajillion notes. And I don't know, it's just like, I don't even know if that's a good answer. But I just, it's like I use it just as much like I use it a ton. Like, of course you guys do too. And it's just like a real comfort. Back then it was just I took it for granted. But now it's like a super comfort. When I took my son to get his haircut tonight and was like sitting in the chairs over there and got out my field notes and I got out this little. I love this thing, by the way. Zebra. Zebra. This thing writes incredibly well. Like, I love this thing. I just got that out and was just like jotting down some notes that were in my head. And it's amazing what like 10 minutes of doing that in the midst of a busy day can just like clear the cobwebs, you know?
Yeah.
What about you, Johnny?
When I was in school, like we didn't use computers. We would. We hand wrote reports or we typed them and I was really bad typist so I avoided anything to do with the keyboard. And now, I mean a lot of this is the luxury of the fact that I don't have an office job, but I'm a really good typist so I avoid computers as much as I possibly can throughout my day. So this happened last week. I have a pile of 30 books and now I have to measure and write listings for. Because I did want to use a computer and do this. So I just started making more books. Like, ah, get around to it. I'll get around to it. Like I need an intern.
But you do need an intern?
Yeah. In my deep middle age self, I really don't like computers specifically. Like, I don't mind using my phone. I don't have a film camera, I don't have a landline. I'm not like a Luddite, but I noticed that not wanting to look at stuff digitally is something that's definitely stuck around. And like, I don't even know how to work graphics programs on a computer. I still doodle all the time. I mean, I have to adhd, but I've noticed that my kids have taken up doodling. Like, Owen's notebooks are full of like so much good Art, like, okay.
No. Is Owen Gen Z? I don't know where Gen Z cut off is the lower end?
I don't know. He was born in 2010. I think he's Alpha.
Okay.
I'm not sure.
Okay.
I hate those letters because X wasn't a letter. Then they teach me like, dude, you're Gen X. You're so old. Yeah,
I feel like among younger kids. Among. And I'm generalizing here because I don't have kids or whatever, but there's definitely like a throwback to more like dumb phones and like being a little bit more analog. Like cassette tapes are coming back in. I feel like there's a little bit of. It seems like maybe a little bit leaning more back toward something that's a little bit more analog. Seems like.
Yeah.
I had a really great moment. Oh, good.
Oh, no good.
We were traveling back from Atlanta a couple weeks ago and had a really great moment because we had been in the car for like five hours straight. We were pulling into Asheville, North Carolina. We were going to stop and have some lunch. And like my kids had been on iPads and stuff in the back for like a lot of that time. And we're just kind of like grumpy. So they got out of the car and we sat down waiting for our food in this restaurant. And it just like I had heard somebody mention this before and I was
like, we should just do this.
Like, like I could figure this out. I'll just come with my own version. And I tore it two pages out of my field notes and made like all paper Battleship game. So I just like made a grid that was like, you know, A to J and 1 to 10. And then like we. I told him like, okay, you have this many pieces. This one's five. This is that we came up with like a system for like how to mark them. And the whole time we were playing, like at dinner, we played Battleship.
That's fun.
Using little slips of paper that were like folded kind of, you know, in half so that you couldn't see what you're doing. Yeah, that way. And my kids were just like, this is great. Like, yeah, so fun. So they started asking to do that. I'm like, that says something right there.
Oh yeah.
You like scribble down like this janky looking Battleship game on two little slips of paper. And your kids are like, you remember that time?
You're a genius.
Battleship on paper. That was so fun. Like, that means I should probably pay attention to this because that's the life that you live. Where, like, that can be revolutionary.
Yeah, Yeah.
I just play tic tac toe all the time with my grandparents on just on place table mats.
Yeah, we played on, like, the tablecloth.
Yeah.
The dot game a ton. Like the. Where you make a grid of the dots and you make the squares. You know what I'm talking about? Like. Oh, yeah, you draw a line and the next person draws a line. It's just like a big. It looks like a dot grid, piece of paper. And one person puts a line, the next one puts one. And then when you close a box, you put your initial in it. Yeah. And then by the end, whoever has boxes.
Yeah.
Love that shit. Yeah,
yeah.
And you've always. If you have notebook in your pocket, you can always do it.
Yeah.
So one more question. I wasn't sure if we'd get to this one, but I'm assuming at, you know, your workplace or family or friends, you interact with people who are, you know, younger than us. You know, I mean, younger millennials or whatever the hell comes after that. Do you think that your early stationary use has affected your current habits and obsessions, like, versus people who didn't grow up with it? I already blew my answer that I freaking hate computers.
I sort of touched on mine earlier. I mean, just like when you guys were like, yeah, you haven't changed very much.
I mean.
Yeah, it's like. It's pretty. Pretty similar. Yeah. For sure.
My. My new job, the design team I work on is most. Most everybody is younger than me. Like, I think they probably average, like, early. Like late 20s, early 30s.
Oh, man.
I know. And I don't know. I wouldn't say that, like, the difference in how we use stationary has changed a lot, but definitely a difference in how we, like, use computers and smartphones have changed a lot. Right. Like, I. There's a lot of stuff like. Like, we. We primarily make, like, desktop computer software, but there is, like a mobile element to it. I think a lot of my co workers are sort of like, mobile first. And like, think about, you know, there's certain things that I'm like, I can't write this thing on an iPhone. I have to, like, do this on a computer or something. And there's. I think that there's. Some of my co workers just don't have that. They're just like, oh, yeah, I'm just gonna respond to this message, this Slack message or this email or whatever on an iPhone. So, like, it's just. Yeah. If it's more than a couple sentences, I just don't Want to do it?
So, yeah, I used to tell my. When I was teaching and like, teaching in high school, I tell my students all the time. Like, guys, I can tell when you answer something on like a homework assignment on your phone.
Yeah.
You're like, how? Like, because it's phone sized. Like, it's like it's this big. And then you do it in class. You sit at a computer, it's this big, and you write it by hand and it's this big. It's like that's, that's not like, you know.
Yeah.
Super shocking thing, but that totally. I, like, I hear what you're saying. That like, that the phone even just like the medium that you deal in, like when you're writing by hand, it's like endless, right?
I mean, it's like, mean is the message.
And then book like. Or sorry. With like a computer. It's like you're. You have that pressure to make it look like a book, right? Like you're like writing and it looks like a page of a book and you've got that kind of like constraint on your head. But when you write by hand, it's just like wild west of like answering something because it's just like you. Nobody's gonna see this.
Yeah.
Do you guys remember the Simpsons episode with Mr. X where they have a montage of the characters who are logging on a Homer's website and they're all like, at a desk with a desktop computer and like a beverage or something. It used to be like a thing like, I'm gonna go get on the Internet.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
So like, I didn't realize how much I still have of that recently. I was watching Lawn Arts for you with my kids and I needed to do something on my computer and I'm like, I'll do it when it's over. Oh, wait, my computer weighs like a pound.
Yeah, I'm gonna do this on my computer.
Like, this is weird. I'm not at a desk.
I will.
How am I gonna plug it in?
That just reminds me of a. Of an early computer stationary thing from around age 11. We had AOL at my house and a food dial up and the. We had to retract the minutes that we spent using AOL that we spent online. And so my dad had one of those little pocket, like flip top notebooks with the spiral bound at the top that he kept right by the computer. That was for the minutes that we used. And so you write your name down and you write the date and you write the number of minutes. Because when you log off, it's like you spent three minutes on the Internet or whatever. So like that was a little piece of stationary that was. And I don't know what he did with them. I don't think that he. Like, I think if anybody was spending like 300 minutes a day on the
Internet, be mindful of it.
Yeah, yeah.
I think it's also one of those things that now as an adult, you're like. It's like what they could have told, like AOL could have told us our total time. Like that's. Yeah. Okay, you're gonna make us count it. It's like, you know.
Yeah.
Kind of like they knew what they were doing and they're trying to get you to go over your minutes by saying, oh, I'll use it for five minutes.
And also, people who are just like younger than us, like, just have never, probably never not had broadband Internet.
Right.
Like, I didn't get Internet until the fifth grade. And then it was like for like four years maybe we had dial up and then eventually we got DSL and just like, what do you mean? We're always on the Internet. Like, I don't have to write down my minutes anymore.
If somebody picks up the phone. I won't lose my connection now. Yeah. What are you talking about?
I used to, like, when I wanted to talk to my friend and my sister was using the Internet, I'd pick up the phone and blow into it and then I would hear Andy.
That's amazing.
Yeah. So, yep, that's something I thought about.
Yeah. Do you guys have anything, do you want to ask or to add? Starting to feel really old.
I feel just right.
So, yeah, I feel I like middle age a lot.
Middle age is great.
It'd be an interesting kind of follow up discussion at some point to talk about like some of the other, like, media and how it's changed. Like cassette tapes and CDs and kind of like MP3s and kind of that evolution from like music nowadays and VHS and. Yeah, DVDs.
Was that like a few years ago that vinyl. Like they sold more vinyl records than CDs like a couple years ago.
Yeah. For the first time. So that would be an interesting, like stationary adjacent thing to talk about. Just kind of that physical media.
Yeah, it would be really amazing to. And I don't know, maybe we could like talk to our friends over at Musgrave or something. Like, I'd be really curious to see what like analog stationary sales have done over the past 20 years.
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
You know, like, they share that.
Yeah.
If they, like, dipped and now they're on the. If they're on the rise because, like, it doesn't seem impossible that they are. Yeah. You know, I mean, well, clearly this
podcast, I'm sure, has given their sales driving business.
But, like, also, just maybe it's the. It might also be the whatever effect of all of us getting older and, like, still wanting to buy this stuff and.
Yeah. Oh, gosh.
Being satisfied.
You know, we didn't talk about. Is Muskego's new pencil.
Oh, yeah, the cheap ones. It looks so damn nice.
Yeah. The yellow special. Yeah. I need to get a box of those. 12 pack for six bucks.
Man, I remember the day when that was a lot.
Yeah. Oh, yeah, that was. Yeah. A 12 pack of Golden Bears for $3.
Oh, man.
Like when I first started knowing about golden bears. Yeah. All right. We should probably button this up so we don't go on too long about. About the old days.
Stop.
Thanks.
Hold me back. Hold me back.
We won't be a month next time.
Yeah.
Next episode won't be so heavy. Hopefully we'll have some fun new products to talk about. But a special thank you to folks who support us at the Steinbeck Stage in Patreon. We read your names for producer credits at the end of every episode and there are a lot of new names and I don't do that well with names I've read before. So I apologize in advance if I butcher your name.
By the way, let me do it before Johnny does that. A quick plug for like. So if you want to sign up for this stage, you can pay yearly and we give you a little bit of a discount on kind of the monthly fee if you do it twice per year. So sorry.
Tony patreon.com erasable I forgot that part.
Yeah.
So our producers are Mikhail Tuikov, John Schroeder, Ellen Mack Tucker, Dana Morris, Liz Rotundo, Alyssa Miller, Angie Aaron Bollinger, Ida Umphurs, David Johnson, Phil Munson, Tom Keakley, Andre Torres, Paul Moorhead, William Modlin, John Cappellouti, Stephen Francali, Aaron Willard, Millie Blackwell, Michael Diallosa, Tana Feliz, JF J A F X in the Midwest or JAFX and site. Chris Metzkis, Molly Mary Collis, Kathleen Rogers, Hans Noodleman and John.
Don't you mean Dr. Hans Noelman?
Dr. Hans Noman? You got to fix this on Patreon, Mr. Newton.
Woman.
I just got a postcard for the Thunder Open today. Yeah. So thanks for joining us. And we'll hopefully see you not in a month.
Do you like our podcast? Most people like our podcast, but if you like our podcast, David will turn it off.