Choosing Your Retirement Hobby

Norah Smaridge
Dodd, Mead, 1976
pages 62 and 63: “Calligraphy”

Easier than drawing or painting, calligraphy or “beautiful writing” is making
a comeback, especially among seniors. “No one is too old, or too decrepit, to
take up and enjoy this simple hobby, that trains both eye and wrist and can be
pursued equally well from one’s armchair or bed,” says Cecil Chisholm, author
of Retire and Enjoy It....

But whatever your reason for taking it up, you will find the art fascinating
and time-consuming. “You’re never perfect,” says Jeanyee Wong, herself a
perfectionist. “You can always do something more and improve.” Miss Wong,
well known for her designs of UNICEF greeting cards, also uses her calligraphy
in book jacket lettering, advertisements, announcements, and invitations.
Louis Strick, director of the Pentalic Corporation which sells italic pens and
writing materials, founded the first calligraphy workshop in the United States
a few years ago. “Calligraphy is to everyday handwriting as a carefully prepared
speech is to casual conversation,” he said, offering a three-week course to
introduce the art. It was received so enthusiastically that courses began to
mushroom around the country....


(Next post March 9: Raritan)