Phidon Story: Patrick Simmons
The first step, they say, is realizing you have a problem.
Architects love journals and I am no exception. I have kept a journal/sketchbook since I was in first year of university. A journal allows me to keep track of ideas, take notes, sketch details, and reflect on design. Over the years, as these books have evolved in size and quality, the contents have changed as well. Much of those first journals are like embarrassing teenage diaries, filled with pretentious intellectual observations and rudimentary sketches. I like to tell myself that my current journal is much more self aware and the sketches could be curated and framed. Oh, how we fool ourselves…
One thing that has truly changed is how I choose and buy my journals. It is an irony that, as we use our computers more and more, handwriting with paper and pen has found a new popularity. Like the slow food movement, more and more people are discovering the joys of writing and drawing the old fashioned way. This, and internet shopping, has created enormous jump in quality and selection of all types of authentic, tactile pleasures, including writing supplies.
Even still, who would have thought that in this digital era someone could open up a fountain pen shop in a small city in mid-western Ontario and be spectacularly successful? Well, against all odds, Mano and Baldeep Duggal have done exactly that. For over ten years they have operated a gorgeous little shop in Downtown Cambridge where people can not only buy an extraordinary range of pens and stationery, but they can also find someone friendly and interesting to talk to. Stationery connaisseurs come from near and far to visit Mano and Baldeep at Phidon Pens and talk about pens, journals, architecture, politics, and literature.
A small sample of Patrick’s wonderful work in his notebooks!
I have been dropping in to Phidon Pens for years to buy pens, notebooks, and gifts. As I neared the end of another journal, I dropped in and asked Mano what new journals she had in stock that could inspire me. She asked me what I use the journal for and I told her that I was referring to what I would describe as my weekly journal. I use it as part diary and part sketchbook and I try to write or draw something in it every week. She asked why I called it my weekly journal and I explained that I had a notebook at the office as well for day to day stuff, as well as a journal that I took on vacations with me. She looked at me and asked if I wanted something to replace all three of these in one, multi-purpose journal. After a bit of thought I was unable to decide so she told me to bring in the journals and we would look at the various formats and try to figure something out.
On the weekend, I brought my work journal home and collected my weekly and vacation journals. I then realized that I had forgotten about my health notebook as well as the notebook that I use to keep track of my exercise workouts and runs. I found these and put them on top of the other three journals, and began to realize that I was going to need a bag or a satchel to carry them all down to Phidon.
As I was getting ready to leave, excited about the prospect of discussing the different journals and notebooks with Mano and Baldeep, I realized that I had missed something. What about my daybook? I use my phone to keep track of my appointments and meetings but have never been able to give up my pocketbook sized appointment book. I placed that on the growing stack. As I prepared to leave, I caught sight of the old book that I use to keep track of renovations and gardening. In this are planting schedules (as if), paint colours, partial floor plans and unlikely five year renovation plans. I had to go back and grab a larger bag to put all these notebooks in. As I drove down to Phidon, the notebook I use to keep track of my car’s gas mileage and maintenance expenses looked at me forlornly, hoping that I hadn’t left her out. What the heck, in for penny, in for a pound. I grabbed this last notebook as I got out of the car and headed into the shop.
What had been an exciting prospect of discussing a new journal had becoming an embarrassing admission of obsession. Who on earth keeps eight different notebooks to track the details of their life? I had never had all of these books in one place before and, as happy as I was with each one of them, in total they seemed to add up to an unhealthy preoccupation. Mano and Baldeep stared at me and offered reassurances. No doubt I wasn’t the first person who had come to them in this predicament. As I explained the purpose of each of my notebooks, I started to listen to myself and realized that as far as obsessions go, it could be far worse.
Mano was very helpful as she made various suggestions, including buying a refillable personal organizer type system. It sounded very useful and intelligent until I realized that it would mean giving up all of my notebooks. I told Mano that I would have to give it some thought. Self-conscious, I tried to slip out as a group of customers came in but Mano saw me and came over to reassure me. I hauled my notebooks back to the house and distributed them back to where they belonged so I wouldn’t have to see the embarrassingly large stack any longer. To take my mind off my obsession, I went to make myself a coffee. As I walked by the dining room, I noticed another notebook on the table, the one I use to write down cocktail recipes and favourite wines…
Thanks to Patrick for sharing his story with us! It’s always great to see him in the store, and we hope you’ll be able to meet him soon. This post was written as part of our Phidon Stories series, posted on Tuesdays bi-weekly. If you’d like to share your own story of falling in love with stationery or visiting the shop, please reach out to us at phidonpens@bellnet.ca.