IN THE EVENT people miss out on finding a perfect Christmas present for me, I spotted two retro items worthy of high status on my wish list.
The first are bullet pens. Pens or pencils housed in spent rifle cartridges first arrived in my Lancaster County hometown after the Battle of Gettysburg. Collectors scoured battlefields in the late 1800s to find and polish thousands of samples. By the 1930s, American companies were passing them out as advertising. Several ended up in the desk drawers of the family business, normally advertising agribusinesses.
The second retro item I'd like to get is a quintessential symbol of the Garden Spot of Pennsylvania--glass milk bottles from the region's dairy farms. Local companies like Pensupreme or Penn Dairies dropped off milk to our family home in the 1960s. I like the feel and the shape of the bottles. I think I'll be limited to the half-pint size because of restrictions in airline luggage.
[Bernie Goldbach is a senior drone pilot and hoarder from 17603.]
