Handbags   (The sad, the bad and the ugly. Non-productive stuff here.)

We also had the option of using a fountain pen, the stipulation was that we had to use ink, I remember some, or most of the fountain pens, had a rubber tube, you'd put it in the inkwell and by capillary action, the ink was sucked into the tube when you pressed a small lever on the side of the fountain pen.

To this day, I can't understand why this was the case of having to use ink in school when more practical instruments were available, back in about 1956, I had what was often called a "Biro" in those days, named after Laszlo Biro, the inventor.

However I digress, secondary school didn't pose any problems with writing implements, as long as you got on with it, it was the junior school that was more insistant on the use of ink.