Magnetic telescopic pin pick up with light
When I first worked in Balliol Library the staff were all very singular and unlike almost almost else I’d ever met anywhere other than in Oxford (Oxford can do this to people; Cambridge can too). An ancient but sprightly and very sweet bird like woman used to pop up from time to time to photograph the ancient manuscripts, early printed books and incunabula (early printed books, printed before 1501 using moveable type). She regularly drove over to Oxford from her home in Suffolk and stayed in B&Bs in Oxford thus eroding considerably anything she might be earning from he photography/digitizing activities. I thought she might like to come and stay at the vicarage – if she didn’t mind a half hour drive there and back in the day – and soon it became quite a regular thing. Sometimes she came with her architect husband and dog Sophie and occasionally a son came to help out.
Magnetic telescopic pin pick up with light (partly extended)
Our first journey out of Oxford was not without its high points. All roads south were log jammed, there was a terrific storm and the short cut I opted for (taken regularly by my daily bus) had us quite literally bouncing off an unseen bollard – fortunately car (also pretty ancient) and bollard were ok but I arrived home thinking she’d never want to come and stay with us again. Gretchen was quite unfazed.
Magnetic telescopic pin pick up with light
Gretchen was very small with curly still dark hair, while I am tall with prematurely nearly completely white hair. We shared a birthday and regarded ourselves as twins for although we looked very different we had many similar interests. Several times the three of us spent the entire evening singing hymns as we tried to decide which were our favourites. At other times we would drive round the village pointing out impressive buildings – mainly barns – and say we must do this when Tony was with us. Gretchen would trot off to bed at 9.30 to be ready for a full day’s work the next day. She was already 80 when I first met her but for reasonsI never quite fathomed had to keep working.
Magnetic telescopic pin pick up with light: close up
Eighteen months ago her husband suffered a stroke and for months she visited him in hospital almost daily, very often driving herself. Meanwhile she knew that she herself was ill and it was only when she collapsed some 9 months after her husband’s stroke that everybody else realised how ill she was. Touchingly, the hospital where her husband was being rehabilitated immediately put him in a taxi to be with her. Just as heartwarming, not long after a nursing home was found for the two of them so they could be together. Visitors would often find them sitting holding hands looking utterly content. Gretchen died first; Tony lasted just few months more.
If the truth be known, Gretchen probably spent more money coming to stay with us than she would have done in a B&B as she always came loaded with bottles of wine, speciality cheeses, delicious puddings and interesting books. She also very helpfully digitized the vicar’s MA and M.Litt theses.
All this is the preamble to saying that one of the things she brought me was this marvellous little gadget. I’m not usually one for special implements but pin dropping is one of my great weaknesses and the wonder is that none of my children – or cats – …. well I can’t tempt fate and say anything further. Gretchen knew it would be not just useful but essential and whereas I can lose pencils and pens at the drop of a hat, I somehow manage to always have my pin pick up to hand.
If you don’t have one, get one immediately – but make sure you get the one with the light.
Details: 33 inches when extended; 8 lb magnet lifting force.
Cost about £10 (Try not to get it from one of those gargantuan firms that shall be nameless – you know the one that pays little corporation tax and wants to take over the world.)
Ever time I use mine I think of Gretchen – which is rather nice. I can’t think of any gift I have ever given that would cause me to be remembered in the using of it. What about you?
