I wonder what our forefathers reaction would have been in this situation?
Picture this moment: It’s July 4, 1776 and our forefathers are gathered in Congress to sign The Declaration of Independence. The 58 delegates each have a quill ink pen in hand, ready to affix their signature to this famous American historical document. Suddenly, an outsider enters the Congressional Chambers and begins to handout Pentel liquid gel ink pens, to replace their quill ink pens for the signing. Question: what do you think their reaction and words would have been? Remember, this is 1776.
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16 Answers
Pretty sure Ben Franklin would have taken it right in stride and loved the idea, tracked down the inventor and invested. The others would have been genteely kerflummoxed.
Since the Declaration was only “adopted by Congress” on 4 July 1776, that’s the date that we celebrate. But no one knows for certain when it was actually signed. Some scholars think it may have been on the 2nd of August of that year.
So I think the signers would have said, “A pen? You think a pen is going to make a difference here? Dude, this is midsummer in Philadelphia! Bring us electricity and a room air conditioner, stat.”
Wasp. your answer made me laugh. good answer.
All I can add to that is that it’s a good thing that they didn’t have air conditioning or they might still be debating the Declaration, and if they had television then they certainly would have called off the Revolution as they watched the terrible news come in day after day.
Jill, i believe in fair play and i just overlooked it. here you go. jp
Um….I think they would have said “WTH??”, signed the Dec. with their own quill pens, then got together later that night and and examined the new pens. And then they would have said “WTH! Why didn’t we think of this? It’s such a simple concept!”
He would have been taken to Area 51 to never be seen or heard from ever again.
At that time it was probably Area 2.
Do you think the forefather cussed or was profanity invented by modern man???
The first caveman that dropped a rock on his foot cursed, so yeah, they cursed.
Wasn’t profanity invented in plenty of time to be mentioned in the Ten Commandments?
I really feel bad I assumed this question was going to involve Arizona in some way :(
@john65pennington
“Do you think the forefather cussed or was profanity invented by modern man???”
Per http://www.merriam-webster.com/netdict.htm :
“Origin of FUCK
akin to Dutch fokken to breed (cattle), Swedish dialect fókka to copulate
First Known Use: circa 1503”
“Origin of SHIT
Middle English *shit, from Old English scite; akin to Old English -scītan to defecate
First Known Use: circa 1526”
Thanks to their glorious European heritage, there’s a good chance that some cuss words were available to them even then. :-p
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