OK, this is probably not the greatest example of Dad's block and cursive handwriting, but it will do. It is taken from the back of the waterfall painting I still mistakenly think isTahquamenon Falls. But one thing was for sure, Dad always had neat penmanship. I think it was just in his blood. I remember one time he gave me a drafting book he used in college. That was back when drafting and proper penmanship were essential to being a good Engineer. (Actually, they still are today, it just is no longer emphasized). The book describes how to control a pen in making letters and numbers. Yes, there really is a correct way to do it, especially for ink drawings.Early on, I started writing block letters exactly the same as Dad. I still do today, but they are not as neat as when I was younger and definitely not as nice as Dad's. His cursive handwriting was also very neat and legible. That makes him totally unqualified to be a doctor!
Notice in the picture above, the "6" and "9" are rotations of each other like they are supposed to be; never a straight down tail on the 9 like most people make. I always liked his closed 4s and non-looped 2s. But my favorite of all letters and numbers he did were the 8s. I will never forget him teaching me
how to make them. "You just have to be sure you never push the pen into the paper", he would say. The teaching and examples were like a rite of passage or something, like being knighted by the king. I still have that drafting book, written in 1935. The picture to the left, is a photo of a page from that book where instructions are given as to how each letter is drawn.The picture below was taken from the front of that book. Of course, the lettering for Dad's name is written exactly as is shown in the example. I only wish he had written some 8s there!
3 comments:
When I joined Seaway Chorale after dad had died, one day I looked down a a piece of music and it was unmistakenly numbered by dad. I noted that the music had been "aquired" from Wyandotte Orpheus. I knew dad had been part of that organization and upon further investigation (by asking mom) learned that he, indeed, had once been their music librarian.
My printing style wasn't much like Dad's until after I took a semster of drafting at Michigan in 1961. They still used those pens with an adjustable opening for width that you had to dip in India ink for every stroke. 6's and 9's and 8's are impossible without using compound strokes because you can't "push" one of those pens. If you tried, ended up with a blob sufficient when folded for iink blot tests.
I thought that training would make calligraphy easy, and it helped, but I never really got the hang of it. The effort, however, helped me to understand some of the bizarre fountain pen handwriting I come across in genealogy documents.
I was always intrigued by by the 6's and 9's but couldn't make them that way. I always loved Dad's writing and the "sameness" of the letters. His lettering was similar to that of Bill and other architecture students. Linda, that story about finding Dad's numbering on sheet music was amazing!
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