Yes I have had it a long time

Tonight I called at the stationers to buy a new refill for my ball point pen. 

The very young assistant looked at the pen and said "have you had that a long time?"
Thinking "long before you were a gleam in your father's eye", I meekly answered "yes".
"A very long time", he said.
"Persistent fellow isn't he" I thought and told him "I received this as a gift for my 21st birthday."
"Is it engraved" he asked?
"No" says I.
"Well how do you remember then?" was his reply.
Cheeky fellow!!!   But in this pen lies a story.

On the grand occasion of my 21st birthday, Father was overseas on a business trip, Older Brother was out for the evening, Younger brother was living away from home working and Sister was at Church Girls Club so Mother and I sat on the sofa in our dining room and ate fish and chips from the newspaper wrapping and drank lemonade.    It was truly a non-event.   But I consoled myself with the thought that when Father got home he would arrange a restaurant dinner similar to the celebration we had had for Older Brother's 21st.   Father came home 2 or 3 days later and life went on.   A week or two went by and no mention of my birthday celebration; indeed, no present.   So I asked Father when I could expect my 21st and his response was that it was all past now so not worth arranging the dinner but he would ensure I received a suitable gift.   And a couple of months later after a further overseas trip he came home with a Parker Fountain Pen and Ballpoint Boxed Set purchased from the duty free store.  (I know that because the wrapping paper said so).   So I need no engraving to remember the saga of my 21st birthday;-)

Father had a habit of forgetting my birthday.   He did it again several years later when visiting me while I was living in Japan.   On that occasion he remembered the next day and was duly mortified - to the extent he gave me a substantial amount of Japanese Yen telling me to buy myself something.   I cannot remember what I bought but I can guarantee it wasn't a pen !