May 10, 2008

Skilcraft and old people cussing


We went to Texas Roadhouse for lunch today, during our shopping trip. When the waitress brought my credit card receipt to sign, she handed me a Skilcraft retractable pen with "U.S. Government" stamped on it. I haven't seen one of those pens in years - not since my Dad worked for the government. I can remember those pens from when I was a kid, and Dad would have dozens of them in his briefcase or in a box. I almost kept her pen, but thought better of it. There are few pens that write as smoothly and neatly as the government issue Skilcraft...


The Wal-Mart in Hope, AR, is undergoing 'renovations and updates.' This means they are moving everything around so that we have to roam around aimlessly trying to find what we are looking for because now it is not where it has been for the last 5 years! While walking down one aisle, an older man was looking in the section marked "cleansers" which now houses the nuts. Go figure. Obviously the employees are leaving the signs where they have always been in an effort to drive customers quite batty. We talked about the fact that you could no longer find what you needed with an older man. He joked about having a cell phone in his pocket so that he could call his wife should either of them end up lost in the confusion.

I saw him a little while later and his wife was with him. He was turning down an aisle, saying something about the overhead sign. His wife's reply? "I don't give a sh!t what the sign says! They are not down that aisle!" It was like hearing my grandmother cuss. Not my Mom's Mom, heck she cussed as it was (though, if she caught us 'kids' cussing, we'd catch all kinds of crap for it!). My Dad's Mom, though, never cussed that I know of, so it was a lot like hearing her cuss. The woman's husband, obviously used to such things, simply aimed his cart toward the next aisle, not phased in the least...

7 comments:

  1. Hi,

    I stumbled onto your post while I was looking up Skilcraft. I really appreciate your post. My family's company has been manufacturing those Skilcraft pens for somewhere around 40 years now. We still do all our molding in New Jersey, then ship the parts to NIB companies around the USA to be assembled.

    It is nice after all these years to still hear positive things about our pens.

    -Greg Shea
    Vice President
    Rotary Pen
    greg.shea@minutemanpen.com

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  2. I am a bit of a pen whiner....I hate to write with a crappy pen. After years of going back and forth on all types of pens that cost a whole lot more, I found one of these Skilcraft pens. Im hooked. I bought a box online and love 'em. Everybody should try them....smoother than anything out there. The G-2's have something to learn from 40 yr old Skilcrafts!

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  3. hi my names Sal im 15 years old and im from California my dad was given a small pick up truck and while cleaning it out i found a beautiful skilcraft pen with "SKILCRAFT-U.S. GOVERNMENT" on it, i was trying to find somewhere where i can buy another somehow since this ones out of ink. and i found this blog about them and i just wanted to know if anyone knows an easy way to get another one of these awesome pens, =)

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  4. Hey Sal, if you're still reading this blog, or article, you're best bet is to order a box off of http://www.abilityone.com/, the website, for the applicable government program. If you're looking for black, medium point, its NSN 7520009357136. If you're just looking for the refills, thats NSN 7510005436792, again, just for medium point. Its about 7.50 for a box of a dozen pens, or 3.14 for a box of refills. Whats really gonna get you is shipping, which is 15.00 unless you order 50.00 worth of stuff. Hope that helps. If you need any more, feel free to send me a message.

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  5. I just ordered 20 of these pens for only 44 cents each!

    http://www.onesourceofficeproducts.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_ID=81724&ParentCat=1385

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  6. signal99, how much was shipping?

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  7. I love these pens. Recently, while at work (we have a central desk that is used by 4 to 6 people when available) I found on the desk a SKILCRAFT pen. It was not the same pen but very close. It had a matte black finish, and it had( recycled ) stamped after the name along side, but was the same shape, size and wrote just like the ones I remember from when i was in the Army. I left it where I found it and wonder if the person that ended up with it knows what they have?

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