coltle6920
Member
My signature defines me alone. There's nothing cursive about it. It's accepted by all financial institutions and that's all I care about.
CURSIVE WRITING
- Thread starter Golddollar
- Start date
I also remember the classroom charts vividly. That, along with the Big Chief Tablet with the dotted lines was standard fare.
If I recall, the successor to the Spencerian script was the Palmer Method of teaching handwriting. I still take personal notes in script as it is faster than printing for me.
If I recall, the successor to the Spencerian script was the Palmer Method of teaching handwriting. I still take personal notes in script as it is faster than printing for me.
Mine is "John Hancock-ish". But my gf's is pretty much indistinguishable from the writing in the "Doctor's strike" poster above
However, like yours, it's accepted where needed.Some of today's "thumbs on phone" generation would probably call cursive writing "the curse of writing."
No one in my extended family, including mom, uses longhand. My officially recognized signature is a 40 Hz sine wave.
About everyone I know uses either a cellphone or smart watch to tell time. If we are hit by an EMP burst we won't much care what time it is.
About everyone I know uses either a cellphone or smart watch to tell time. If we are hit by an EMP burst we won't much care what time it is.
You bring back memories, Golddollar! Those cards were above the blackboard in my elementary school. One card for each letter, upper and lower case. They had horizontal lines on them as indicators for various features of each letter. I was never any good at cursive. Eventually I went to printing block letters. Part of that came from drafting classes. I was decent at printing, but I got sloppy. I'm still sloppy to this day. My writing looks like that of drunk drafter in a big hurry. I'm lucky to be able to read my own writing.
So I sympathize with the kid at hunter sight-in. We have a range rules sheet for guests to read and sign. Poor kid didn't know how to sign his name.
The world, she is a changin'
So I sympathize with the kid at hunter sight-in. We have a range rules sheet for guests to read and sign. Poor kid didn't know how to sign his name.
The world, she is a changin'
LVSteve
Member
Oh yes, I remember being taught the US version of cursive writing in the late 60s. Then we returned to England and my handwriting was immediately treated with ill disguised vitriol by every teacher I came across. My attempts to mollify them resulted in handwriting that looks like the efforts of a crack addicted spider trying to build a web while in withdrawal. As a result I detested writing essays and history analysis reports, and was regularly censured for turning in stuff that was "too short".
Consequently, despite a command of the English language well in advance of my peers, I drifted towards science and engineering as I aged through what would be called middle school and high school in the US. No middle schools in my part of England back then. It was all "secondary school". With science, writing was kept to the minimum, and that suited me just fine, ta very much. When I chose my subjects at 14 for my exams at 16, my English teacher said he was "mortified" that I was leaving him and his English Literature class just to go and make stinks and bangs in chemistry. Hated to disappoint the bloke because he was a damned good teacher, but I was done writing. Even now with the advantages of desktop publishing software, my writing has been described by coworkers and bosses as "very to the point, almost terse". Well, I've never been paid by the column-inch, so why descend into prose when it adds nothing to the subject matter.
I have other stories of "forks in the road" when it comes to my education. For another time, perhaps.
Consequently, despite a command of the English language well in advance of my peers, I drifted towards science and engineering as I aged through what would be called middle school and high school in the US. No middle schools in my part of England back then. It was all "secondary school". With science, writing was kept to the minimum, and that suited me just fine, ta very much. When I chose my subjects at 14 for my exams at 16, my English teacher said he was "mortified" that I was leaving him and his English Literature class just to go and make stinks and bangs in chemistry. Hated to disappoint the bloke because he was a damned good teacher, but I was done writing. Even now with the advantages of desktop publishing software, my writing has been described by coworkers and bosses as "very to the point, almost terse". Well, I've never been paid by the column-inch, so why descend into prose when it adds nothing to the subject matter.
I have other stories of "forks in the road" when it comes to my education. For another time, perhaps.
I went to NYC public school in the 60s. We didn't use fountain pens, but our old wooden desks still had a hole in the right hand corner, with a flip-up brass lid, where the ink well sat.
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Remember them fondly, with the ruled copy books. I still journal in cursive. A few years ago I started using block letters when I realized my descendants wouldn't be able to read it. That didn't last long.
At the risk of straying into politics my election judge bride just attended training on the new technology for checking in (I can't say verifying) voters. Instead of signing on paper to compare with the registration card a touchpad will be used. On my best day I can't produce anything that looks remotely like my signature on one of those and I don't known anyone who can.
At the risk of straying into politics my election judge bride just attended training on the new technology for checking in (I can't say verifying) voters. Instead of signing on paper to compare with the registration card a touchpad will be used. On my best day I can't produce anything that looks remotely like my signature on one of those and I don't known anyone who can.
With all of the "Political Correctness" going around these days, I'm sure there is some "Anti Cursive Writing" group threatening lawsuits if the cursive character cards above the black boards are not removed!
My wife could do beautiful caligraphy at one time. The problem has always been that her regular handwriting is nearly illegible, even by her. That fact however, is no deterrent to her continual practice of it.
If I need a grocery list I have her text me.
If I need a grocery list I have her text me.
CAJUNLAWYER
Member
I'll go one step further. Way back in the day one could actually tell what school you went throug by reviewing your handwriting as each set of nuns taught it a lottle differently. The Sacred Heart girls wrote differently from the Ursuline girls and so forth. My dad's cursive was in a style unlike my mother's since he was taugt in the midwest and she was taught in New Orleans. Much like differing dialects. Me, I was a lefty which according to the nuns was the mark of satan. They pretty much gave up on trying to make my handwriting readible and I developed over time a sort of mishmash of highspeed printing/shorthand/cursive that is perfectly legible to me but pretty much undicipherable to anyong else. Computers have been a godsend for me.
Same here, my "signature" on a touch pad doesn't look at all like it should. Perhaps I'm just a klutz. Even worse than a touchpad was a non-contact scheme in encountered in the dentist's office. I was sitting in the dental chair and they asked me to sign some form. No touch pad. The hygienist gave me a wireless stylus and said sign my name in the air. My "signature" appeared on the screen and looked much like the aforementioned spider web. Not any more legible than a witnessed X or mark on a legal document.
Technology is a wonderful thing, except, when it isn't.
I'm researching a series of lakefront properties that were subdivided out of farms beginning in 1887. The various cursive styles and language usage in the deeds are a headache - and I was taught cursive. Usually I can decipher a problem by finding other examples of the letter in the deed I'm having trouble with but not always.
Fountain pens! Blast from the past! Our desks had inkwells, although I recall mostly using cartridges. I remember one fountain pen with a filler lever on the side, though. And more or less permanently ink-stained fingers.
Went to a private school, so shirts & ties and properly shined shoes were the order of the day.
I still have a Sheaffer cartridge pen but can't find cartridges for it, al least not in a store.
All these memories are making me feel rather old
I went to Catholic school in the 50s under some rather serious nuns. We were restricted to fountain pens and they did not allow the new fangled cartridge types. Had the ink well in the desk, and due to all that just about any shirt I wore to school showed ink splotches. Think Rorschach tests.
Admittedly I was a failure at penmanship and even with all the abuse my knuckles and hands in general took from the nuns use of force I never got better.
My writing is so bad even today that I jokingly l say I should have been a famous heart or brain surgeon so that could explain my lack of writing skills. I also have been asked a couple times if I was born a natural lefty and forced to write with my right hand. (Ans no)
GypsmJim
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If surveyors have to refer back and forth to a handbook to decipher a deed, I'd say we are in trouble.
Maybe a required university course for civil engineers should be learning how to write, which should have been taught in grade school.
Maybe a required university course for civil engineers should be learning how to write, which should have been taught in grade school.
I took Drafting and Architectural Drawing for two-years. In the old days you spent nearly a full semester developing your lettering skill and signature system. We had to repeat perfect lettering until we were sick of it. Hours of copying.
Once the instructor was satisfied that you could do (his opinion) perfect lettering, you were allowed to develop your own twist or "signature" style of print lettering. This took a little artistic talent.
Many years later I got into law enforcement, all of our incident reports and logs were required to be printed and no cursive writing was allowed.
Needless to say, I blew the doors off my competition with my legible reports, etc. This was one reason I promoted quickly. My first Captain admired my written material and would dance around waving it in the face of the other supervisors "Hell, I can read this! Just like I was there! I'm sending this boy to Investigators School!"
I had a decent cursive writing, but soon lost it for lack of practice.
Once the instructor was satisfied that you could do (his opinion) perfect lettering, you were allowed to develop your own twist or "signature" style of print lettering. This took a little artistic talent.
Many years later I got into law enforcement, all of our incident reports and logs were required to be printed and no cursive writing was allowed.
Needless to say, I blew the doors off my competition with my legible reports, etc. This was one reason I promoted quickly. My first Captain admired my written material and would dance around waving it in the face of the other supervisors "Hell, I can read this! Just like I was there! I'm sending this boy to Investigators School!"
I had a decent cursive writing, but soon lost it for lack of practice.
snowman
Member
I remember them well. Didn't do me any good. I had terrible handwriting and had a backhand slope for a right hander.
My Father had the best perfect handwriting ever! It drove him crazy
At least I excelled in other subjects
I believe the correct term these day for the "board" is chalk board or a dry erase board.
My Father had the best perfect handwriting ever! It drove him crazy
At least I excelled in other subjects
I believe the correct term these day for the "board" is chalk board or a dry erase board.
My daughter teaches high school English Lit to juniors and seniors. She recently asked them to sign their name on a piece of paper and pass them to the front. Only two had a signature. All the others just printed their name. How will they ever apply for a car loan? Or a mortgage? Or sign a consent form at the doctor's office?
As someone noted above — Rusty, I think — your official signature can be whatever squiggle or symbol or whatever you want. No need for legible penmanship for a legal signature.
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