The Reindeer Keeper

When I was seven years old my grandfather made me a simple pine desk for Christmas. It came with a stool, two side shelves and a single drawer. Inside that drawer was a pad of paper and two yellow, sharpened #2 pencils. That was the moment I knew I wanted to be a writer. I really didn't know what that meant. I think the pencils had a lot to do with it. I wanted to draw with them. Write. Scribble. Fill that pad of paper with original artwork. All kinds of artwork.  I fell in love not only with my desk that Christmas morning but with pencils as well and the infatuation has never gone away.  So, when I discovered there really is a "National Pencil Day" I had to celebrate it by sharing my infatuation for pencils with anyone who might like to read about it. I have a "few" boxes of pencils. Colored pencils. Broken pencils. Really sharpened pencils. Pencils with erasers. Pencils minus erasers. Pencils with funny erasers. And lots of yellow #2 pencils. I also have a few...

When recently walking down a certain aisle of a discount store, I found myself drawn to all the school supplies filling the shelves. Signs shouting special pricing-great deals-hurry while supplies last-were everywhere as were children with parents obviously immersed in Back to School shopping. And there I was-still infatuated by all those products just as I used to be when I was the one taken to the store to shop for Back to School. When it was me, it was never the clothes or shoes that interested me. It was always the pencils-the erasers and glue and paper and scissors and notepads and folders. All those aromas of all those things coming together was exciting to me. Besides going back to school, it meant spending even more time at my desk in my bedroom-writing-drawing-creating whenever I could. Back then there were no official discount stores. We had a Newberry's and a Woolworths. They sat side by side in our downtown. Everyone would go from one to the other when doing Ba...