Kept in glass cases in the center of stationary stores in the western United States, and available in a variety of colors, to purchase this item would have required the assistance of a salesperson. This particular item features a watermelon green barrel with salmon pink accents on the clip and retractable tip. Other varieties included navy blue with silver accents, gray with gold, with new color combinations released each year. It is slight, but has a heft to it that doesn’t compare to Bic stick pens. Inside is an empty ink barrel, but during its era it would have been filled with blue or black ink and could be replaced. Coveted by the kind of girls who wrote poetry on their paper bag book covers in high school, this particular pen was given as a birthday gift from one best friend to another, delivered in a small wooden box with a felt lining.
It would have been reserved for special correspondence such as filling out college applications, thank you cards for graduation gifts, postcards to friends from summer vacation spots or love letters to boys who never wrote back.
Melissa Flores Anderson (she/her) is a Latinx Californian whose creative work has been featured in more than 40 literary venues and anthologies, including swamp pink, HAD and The Write Launch. She is a reader/editor with Roi Fainéant Press. She has co-authored a novelette, “Roadkill,” (ELJ Editions) and a chapbook “A Body in Motion,” (JAKE). Follow her on Twitter and Bluesky @melissacuisine or IG/Threads @theirishmonths. Read her work at melissafloresandersonwrites.com.