Pencils From A Six Year Old Kid's Vantage Point

When I was a kid in first grade fifty years ago somehow or other I always got stuck with the pencil with broken leads, which meant lots of trips to the pencil sharpener under Miss LaPolla's basilisk stare. 

I swore a dark and bloody oath-a strange thing for a 6 year old kid to do-that when I was grown up I would have as many pencils as I wanted, all sharpened nicely, and a selection of sharpeners to fit every occasion, Well, I may not have accomplished much in my life but I did this. I now have a lifetime supply of pencils and erasers, a banker's box full of new ones and about 20 or so electric sharpeners around the house. 

I even have a couple of battery powered Hitachi pencil sharpeners for use on the road-they fit neatly in the pocket of my knapsack. There's nothing nicer to me than the smell of a freshly sharpened pencil made from good American  incense cedar-even though most current day pencils are made of inferior wood, the vintage ones I have still smell good.

So take that, Miss LaPolla.