This is the pencil sharpener from my grandparents’ house in Mena. I love seeing functional things like this that don’t deteriorate through the years – it’s just as useful as it was on its date of origin. I’m relieved that it isn’t totally foreign to my kids to sharpen a pencil in class, and despite moving my life closer and closer to paperless I still keep this and good supply of old-fashioned pencils and Field Notes Brand notebooks in close reach at my desk.
It steel feels like a moment of freedom to defiantly and distractedly jump up from what you’re supposed to be working on to stretch your legs, to use a manual device, to get a little bit of the lead on your fingers, to picture the perfect little cone shavings inside the thing and to recall the smell of a freshly-sharpened pencil.
Around here, it has to be almost Wordless Wednesday, because I can’t really live without words. I’m using these posts to share a few of the small but meaningful things around our home – the fond memories, tattered remnants and found objects that make me smile.
This makes me smile too :). I haven’t seen an old pencil sharpener like this is years. Brings back memories of school days! Love this series. You’re house is full of little treasures!!
The smell of freshly sharpened lead and wood. The best. The best.