I referred to them as “seed corn pencils” and did not think twice about it.
They are pencils that were used to advertise seed corn my great-grandfather sold in the mid-20th century. To me the reference needed no further explanation. But I discovered that I am not everyone and that not everyone has my experience. I grew up on a grain and livestock farm in the American Midwest in the 1970s/1980s. I’ve know what “seed corn” is for a very long time: it’s corn that is used for seed–for planting.
But not everyone has that background and when I referred to my great-grandfather’s pencils as “seed corn pencils” others did not understand the reference and thought they were some odd sort of pencils that somehow involved “seed corn.” They are regular old writing pencils. They are unused because my great-grandmother kept a large number of them that were found when she passed away. They write like regular pencils–when sharpened.
They were just used for advertising.
But I was reminded that it is good to always explain things clearly as not everyone has the same background and experience that I do. I need to be aware of that when writing and communicating. That’s true for all of us. It is also something we have to remember when reading and interpreting records used for genealogy–there may be phrases that do not mean exactly what we think they mean.
No responses yet