The Pencil Collection

About twenty years ago I decided to start collecting pencils. It seemed like an appropriate enough hobby for two reasons: 1) Teachers encounter a lot of pencils on a typical work day, and there was a wide variety of designs out there. 2) Pencils seemed very much like a writer kind of thing to collect. If I was out traveling or passing through any kind of store or touristy gift shop that kept a small display of souvenir pencils by the cash register, I’d pick one up. If I had friends of family going on vacation, I’d ask them to keep an eye out. The collection began growing exponentially as my students became more aware of it and took an interest, sometimes gifting me with new pencils upon returning from vacations, sometimes just handing them over if they got one as some kind of a prize, and even a few times taking the time to come up with original designs made of everything from Play-Doh dots to sparkly ribbons to multi-colored Sharpie scribbles.

It’s been a few years since I last counted them, but I know the collection now numbers well over 500. Digging through it is a historical study not unlike reading the rings from the cross section of a tree: There are two encouraging me to participate in the census, identical except for having dates a decade apart. I found one in buried in there this summer promoting a website that doesn’t exist anymore. I have some reminding me what a big scary deal people made Y2K out to be, or that the St. Louis Rams once played in Los Angeles.

I have pencils printed to advertise every imaginable business, tourist attraction, organization, or cause. I couldn't honestly guess how many different languages or countries are represented. I’ll admit I don’t remember where most of them came from, but many are still notable for different reasons. Some with unique novelty toppers tend to stand out: The double-decker London bus, the Stratosphere hotel, the Scooby Doo snow globe, the Koosh ball. There are a lot I have personal connections to, like the one my parents bought me in Thailand, several from my school, one that expresses the value of pi out to sixty digits, and one from the school where I did my student teaching which was closed several years ago. There’s one encased in a plastic tube that allegedly smells like root beer; I can neither confirm nor deny the validity of this because I’ve never broken the seal. I’ve never been to New York City, but based on my pencil collection I suspect souvenirs are probably easy to find there.

Several of them bring back memories from many directions, but even with all of the history and connections I have in that pile, it’s easy to pick out a favorite: It’s a pale yellow pencil with the words “dry clean only” printed on one side and “100% wool” printed on the other, with a fuzzy, chubby sheep for a topper. My sister Erin gave it to me. Sheep were kind of her thing.

While I was writing this, it occurred to me there was actually a third reason I had started the collection: Back about that time the Internet was really just catching on in the mainstream, and it seemed possible that someday the good old ubiquitous wood & graphite pencil we all grew up with could very possibly go the way of the inkwell and quill or chalk and slate in a paperless society. Now in a world with more schools bringing in dozens if not hundreds of iPads for their students, and the advent of devices like the Apple Watch, such a thing seems all the more possible. Usually I love living in a time my younger self would have considered science fiction. But all the same, I hope we don’t work our way out of using pencils anytime soon.