Editing The Pen Addict 222/transcript (section)

== Fountain Pen Day Origins ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. I don't even know how that started with me. That's definitely a recent, since I've been into Pen's thing. Like I was never, you know, an orange fan necessarily growing up. So I'll have to, you know, lay on a couch one day and figure out how I came to love orange so much.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. So I want to go to the beginning of before there was even a fountain pen day. How the idea for such a thing came into your mind. Like, because I'm in, I'm going to put words in your mouth here, but I'm thinking like at the time, you don't really have like an online presence. You're not writing necessarily, blogging, doing much Instagram or YouTube. Then all of a sudden, does the light bulb come on and say, hey, I'm going to do this thing called fountain pen day. How'd that, how'd that happen?

'''Cary Yeager:''' So fountain pen day was not my idea alone at all in any way, shape or form. And I would never want to take credit for it. And I tell people all the time when I've spoken about it, you know, on fountain pen network, you can search for fountain pen day and it goes back to the very beginning. And I believe it was either national, I think it was national pencil day or national ballpoint pen day, one or the other. And if you were like, why would there be national ballpoint pen day? And there's no, we need a fountain pen day. And I was jumped in and I'm like, yeah, we do. Because I, I was a little bit computer savvy at the time. I had zero online presence. I was just a little name out there of, you know, plugging in replies here and there and asking a million stupid questions. And I Googled fountain pen day in parentheses to see what came up. And at that time, nothing came up. The only thing that came up when back in 2012, in like, say, July, when we first started talking about it, it was like some weird translation to a song from a Japanese or a Korean band. And that came up in the Google search. That was literally all there was. And I said, there's nothing. There's literally nothing out there. And Twitter was kind of new. And I'm like, you know what? I'll get to Twitter and the Facebook and I'll start doing that. And everyone was like talking about it in the background. And it was a good, I'd say eight or nine of us. There may have been more. Again, I haven't looked in a while. But you can go back and look. It's sitting right in open space.

'''Cary Yeager:''' And everybody was like, well, we need to get this done. And how do we choose a day? And long story short, the day came down to it needs to be on a Friday every year. And that was a hard debate. But whatever. We decided we had to figure a Friday. And there's an open hole right after Halloween. And the first Friday after Halloween would be the first Friday in November, right? So it would be the first Friday in November. It's three weeks before Thanksgiving. The kids are already in school. There's not a lot going on. So for that, it worked out well. And we were like, okay, good. So then I started contacting the retailers that I had bought from. And I got a hold of like the Goulet's, the Anderson's.

'''Cary Yeager:''' Kenro was near me. I had just, I forgot how I got their name at the time. But there were a few of them out there and Fountain Pen Hospital. And I just typed up an email and emailed everybody. And then I'm like, you know what? I'm just going to go and look at all the retailers that I can find. And I had a Google and I just sent emails out and out and out. And all of a sudden, they grabbed onto the idea. And they said, well, that sounds interesting. And they got back and they said, well, we could do this and we could do that or whatever. Long story short, listen, people's lives get busy. And as people dropped off, you know, this is going on or that's going on or the kids are getting back in school. Because this was going on during the summer. And by the end of the day, there was only a couple of us left. And at the very end of the day, I was kind of there. Holding the flag, if you will. And I didn't want to let go. And it wasn't due to anyone saying, oh, forget it. This doesn't make sense. Everyone's lives get busy. And I understand that. Mine gets busy. And sometimes you don't see me post for a while or whatever. But I just felt like, you know, I got people involved in it. And I knew a lot of them. And I remember speaking to Rachel Goulet on the phone. She actually helped set up the Facebook page in the very beginning.

'''Cary Yeager:''' I had set up a website that was really, it was there. Do you know what I mean? And that was kind of what it was. But it was a place for people to look and read about it and know that, you know, we were starting something. And there were people that wanted to do National Fountain Pen Day. And that came out where, you know what, it's a lot of legwork to get senators to sign it and all this. And I'm thinking, this Fried Chicken Day, National Fried Chicken Day. I'm like, so they went to all this process for that, which is fine. I love fried chicken too. But at the end of the day, though, it was, it came down to, this needs to be worldwide. Forget any national recognition. It doesn't have to be on the calendar for the United States. Because it's not about here. It's about everywhere in the world and getting everybody involved. Because whether you're writing hieroglyphics or kanji or whatever language you're writing, you're still writing. And you need to write it. You need to put it down, pen to paper. So, we had the first year. And there were, I forgot how many. We had a bunch of vendors. And a lot of people celebrated. We had the Twitter up and tried giving stuff away. You know, we got donations from those retailers and trying to get them to give back. And, you know, it went well. And we just kind of moved forward from there. And I think it was after, just after the first year, Aaron Zeller from Zeller Writing. He had just started his company. And he was going through school. He was getting married in the last couple of years. But he said, you know what? I know how to do a website. I can put it up on WordPress. So, that website, he built. And put it together for us. And it's just been sitting there. And just, you know, updatable every year. And, you know, so he was a great backbone to have for putting that website together. So that it looks, you know, how it looks today. And, again, keeping it neat and clean with no ads and no pop-ups. And, you know, a place for people to go for education, if you will. Right. And, so anyway, so every year from there, it's just grown exponentially.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You said something very interesting a second ago. And I don't know if you realize it or not. But you were essentially the last person standing in the conversation about there should be this thing. What do you think made you the guy to put the muscle behind getting Fountain Pen Day started? I think that's just the way you said it was super interesting to me.

'''Cary Yeager:''' I think timing has a lot to do with it. I mean, yes, a lot of it, 100% of it, about 99% of it is about passion. And how much I really, I truly love it. I think it needs to be around forever. All the articles, you know, when you write something down, you remember it. I get all that. But for me, I think, you know, I'll give you two quick stories. Because the impact on me is when I think about my grandfather, who was a teacher and principal, and I look at things that he wrote back in the day. And I look at his signature. And I remember him telling me how long it would take him to sign something if he wanted to sign it in an ornate manner. And it was just amazing. I remember at the time, I thought, wow, you wrote that. And it really had an impact on me because he took so much pride in how his signature looked. And when he wrote something, how it read and how it came across. And, you know, it impacted me. I think the other part was hearing stories from people who have grandparents, great-grandparents, or uncles that were in, like, Vietnam and stuff. And, you know, they find letters years later. And usually it's a letter and it's got a card next to it, you know, from when they passed. And the pen that they wrote their last letter to that loved one with. And, you know, usually it's in Estabrook, generally speaking. I think that's what they were giving out. But I remember, I know there's stories out there about that. And people would keep the last letter that they got from that person and the pen that they wrote it with that they got back. And I thought about, you know, what the history of that pen was. You know, what that person wrote daily in their journal with that particular pen of everything, all the horror going on, but their life experience. It's really what it comes down to. And it just really, I mean, it just really grabbed me. You know, it grabbed me from deep inside of what that means and what it's really about.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, as I've gotten to know you better over the years and we talk all the time and we get to see each other in person at pen shows, I can't imagine a better person to bring this whole fountain pen day thing forward and into the public conscience. And seeing it grow just in the past two years alone, it's been phenomenal, right? I mean, what are you seeing just from the fountain pen day side of things? Just the growth and the participation you're seeing in the fountain pen day every year as these past couple years have gone by?

'''Cary Yeager:''' A lot more interaction, which is great. Interaction between other people, even though it's through social media, you know, that's the greatest connection for that instant. Look what I got. Look at this pen. Look what I found. Look at this ink. Look at this paper. See how it writes. And they share in that way. And then they connect and they're writing letters to each other. Because you can only see it visually on your screen. But now these people are writing letters to each other. And I think it started, it kicked off a lot of pen pal, things like that. But as well, a lot of people are taking the opportunity to celebrate that day and get their pen groups together, get their local brick and mortar stores involved. And it's all over the world. You know, I mean, I look at, like, Laira, she had a complete art festival built around Fountain Pen Day two years ago. And they actually had a fair that went for three days. And last year she was able to get some of the pen manufacturers to come down into the Philippines to set stuff up. And it's not just there. I know Poland. They set up a pen show around Fountain Pen Day. The Ohio Pen Show, they try. And he's trying to get it so that it's on Fountain Pen Day every year to kind of have a good build up to it. And so many of the vendors have opened their doors. And when I mean vendors, I mean, like, the brick and mortar people to let people in. Whether it's, you know, the Andersons, Vanass, Drome Ghouls, Fountain Pen Hospital, Bertram's.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, they're doing in-store stuff, right?

'''Cary Yeager:''' Bertram's Inkwell has stuff all the time. I know Deb Basil goes there sometimes and teaches. He's got, like, a vintage pen repair going on this weekend at Bert's store. And, you know, it's a way to invite people in. And it's not – it's a good way for people to meet your brick and mortar folk, if you will. Because they are passionate about it. They care about it. They are, you know, so driven by the hobby that you forget that they're your retailer. And, you know, and you've seen that at shows. Well, there are friends, right? Who's at the bar? That's how this community is. When you go to the bar at night, it's amazing. Because these people sold pens all day for 10 hours. And they're in the lobby. They're not leaving the building. They're in the lobby hanging out with us because they love it. They love – they're not there with a pocket full of pens saying, oh, have you ever seen Scott Franklin offer anybody to buy a pen in the after hours? You never have. He's there hanging out, buying drinks, enjoying his time with everybody. People like Susan Wirth who just – at the Colorado show last year, she walked by before dinner after spending – and you know Susan. She's the last one out of the building. So she's always there like 10 or 12 hours. She hung out with us straight out of the pen show when we had our little pen meet for, I would say, five hours. She literally ordered dinner while we were having our meat so that she could eat and just – and talked about pens and pulled out pens and showed people how to write in different inks and just became part of the group. And I just thought that was just one of the greatest things to see, you know?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. It's a real special environment that we're part of. And I think Fountain Pen Day plays a big role in that, quite honestly. It's kind of that connecting thread, I think.

'''Cary Yeager:''' You know, I do too. And I get that, you know, every Fountain Pen Day, I see a thousand comments. You know, every day is Fountain Pen Day. And you know what? Every day is Fountain Pen Day. But the fact that we didn't have a day set aside specifically to say this is Fountain Pen Day, we needed that. We really did. And the fact that it didn't exist still shocks me to this day.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yeah, I'm with you. So now you've started getting out to shows more often like in the past year, maybe a little more than that, bringing Fountain Pen Day out to these shows that have never – you know, a lot of people attending these shows have never heard of Fountain Pen Day. And you're getting out in front, you know, with your killer t-shirts. You know, I don't like to miss Fountain Pen Day t-shirts. I don't know how many I have at this point, but it's too many. But they're so cool. And so what made you kind of get out to these shows and want to, you know, bring the Fountain Pen Day, you know, more out in front?