Mechanical Pencils

I never was much of a math whiz. The logic seemed to escape my grasp for some reason. Oh sure, if I had applied myself I would have figured it out eventually but that would have been hard work and not nearly as much fun as blissful ignorance. Besides, as I look back on my early life I realize the odds were against me understanding math for many reasons. One reason in particular was the fact that I hated math. It had no relevance for me.

The start of each school year was exciting. The trip to Gibson's Discount Store for our school supplies was a real treat. I'm sure my parents enjoyed it as much as we did because they took such joy in tossing things out of the basket as we tossed them in. It was a great family tradition. One year in particular I wanted a Scripto mechanical pencil just like my dad's. I wasn't sure it would stay in the basket but amazingly neither mama or daddy grabbed it and put it back on the shelf. Hiding it under a package of notebook paper possibly helped. The pencil cost 29 cents as opposed to the wooden pencils which were practically free. It was a fine writing instrument let me tell you. It was kind of a turquoise blue translucent plastic. You could see the little screw thingy move as you twisted the top. It was a true marvel.

This Scripto pencil was my reason for not doing so well in math class that year. You see, I used a pen for all my classes except math. In math I got to use my new Scripto. I sat in class day after day slowly twisting the top and watching the little screw thingy move up and down, up and down. It was so interesting how the lead would slowly come out and out....and out until I turned the top the other direction. The lead would slowly twist back into the pencil. It was simply amazing. I found I could twist the top enough times that the lead would appear to stand out away from the pencil with no support and then it would still go back in with no effort. How could this possibly be?

Throughout the year the math teacher would attempt to ask me frivolous questions about the topic of the day. Most of those questions went unanswered because they had no relevance to the operation of my Scripto. I did not do well in math that year.

I did manage to graduate from high school on time even though I still had no concept of math. I figured that was okay since I was out of there and college had to be much easier. I lost my Scripto sometime along the way and had to go back to using plain old wooden pencils. Oh sure, the wooden pencils tasted better when chewed but they didn't hold a candle to my beloved mechanical pencil. Plain old pencils were boring. There was no mystery about wooden pencils.....unless you hadn't already figured out how they got the lead inside the wood so neatly.