2B or not 2B?

I feel sorry for today's children coming of school age and then young adulthood in the 21st century. They will not have the joy of writing on paper with a pencil in their everyday lives.
Everybody seems attached to their digital devices that spell out words for you before you have even typed a single character from the keyboard that pops up on one's "smart screen."




When my own children were of school age, one of the things I actually enjoyed as a parent was to go shopping for "School Supplies."  We would buy a dozen pencils usually a medium firmness HB box. They may have used them for art or math, but the box never lasted the year... before the end of the school year, they would be rummaging amongst my stationery items for a pencil.


When I went to school (I think Charlie Dickens may have been at the desk next to me...) I not only had an open topped ink well in the corner of the desk, I was given 2 pens to dip into the aforementioned ink-well!  How ever, the thrilling "supplies" I went to school with, was a compass set (look it up in Google. It seems fitting to mention here, that I still have that same set in my possession.) And 2 or 3 pencils -- generally HB ones, but possibly a B softness for drawing biology specimens. However, I and my friends were quirky individuals, interested in art, but not artists. So I am unclear why we adopted the habit of using a strong. firm pencil sharpened to a very fine point; My favourite was my 2H. Yes you read that correctly, a 2H. Extra hard, so one could press hard and not snap the point as well as giving one a fine straight line.  Great for drawing hot rods during chemistry and idolized sketches of "Julie" a few desks over in Maths ... well, any drawing. My note books had few lines of writing but had hundreds of drawings in them.


Now do not get my started on "propelling pencils". I loved them too, For more idiosyncratic reasons ...that I no longer recall, I used to use a green leaded one.


That pencil lasted me through college and in to my first  job. Whilst there, I was correcting a draft letter and my boss informed me that the "green" coloured ink (or pencil) I was using for corrections was a no-no. Green ink was for the excusive use of the accountants.


Had to revert to blues and blacks, but my 2H remained a useful tool for doodling during boring meetings!!