NEW YORK CITY BOY: PART FIVE
Written by James Ward
I didn’t only buy Cadbury’s Twirls when I was in New York. That would have been a waste. I explored the city. I went to Broadway:
They had a whole wall dedicated to Post-it Notes:
I bought two Post-it Note flag pens:
Geoff Nicholson is a big fan of Post-it Note flag pens.
I also bought some Wite-Out:
Then I went to a shop called Typewriters ‘N Things:
I didn’t actually see any typewriters in the shop, maybe they had them in the back or something. They had a fine selection of notebooks. I bought a set of three Writersblok notebooks and a Dixon Ticonderoga pencil:
The man in the shop offered to sharpen the pencil for me, but I said it was fine. I recently bought a 1970s vintage Staedtler pencil sharpener from eBay, so when that arrives, I can use that:
I thought the frontage to this shop looked amazing:
I was tempted to buy this:
Especially as the was 50% off, but it was a bit bulky and I didn’t fancy carrying it around all day.
Instead, I bought a Trodat date stamp:
I’ve always liked date stamps, probably because for many years I worked in libraries.
The box was a bit battered, but the stamp itself is beautiful:
It must have been on the shelf a long time without anyone buying it. The date range runs from 01/01/1986 through to 31/12/1997. It must have been sitting on that shelf since the late 1980s, and for the last thirteen years it has been functionally obsolete. I think the date bands are replaceable, but I’ll keep it the way it is.
JAMES WARD: I LIKE BORING THINGS 
This account filled me with a lovely sense of peace and contentment.
James,
This series of articles are a thing of considerable beauty…
In particular the purchase of the ‘Lonely date stamp’ was quite wonderful – thank you for sharing your view of the world…
How very satisfying
Very good on the date stamp there.
Lovely – I’ve had a penchant for stationery ever since i was surrounded by it for the four years i worked part time in a book/stationery shop. Especially like the date stamp, although did see the post it pens advertised somewhere recently and was sorely tempted to seek them out
I think I would just go nuts on the typewriter store. I just love them! And I really do love office supplies like theses. Lots of my money goes to these things that I don´t even need.
Love the Trodat date stamp, James. IIRC the 4010 stopped being made in about 1991/2 and was replaced by the 4030 and now we have the 5030. I collect old office stamps it comes from working in libraries i think.