Charals - store closing update

(announcement posted on Charals' Instagram account on April 2, 2025)

Sadly, after 39 years, Charals will be closing their store sometime this summer 😭.
I got in touch with Charals' owner Shelina earlier this week, and she told me that the store might  close as soon as the end of  this month (June), so don't wait too long to pay the store a visit before it closes permanently! 

Charals is located at 171 Robson Street in downtown Vancouver (less than one block from B.C Place). The store's regular hours are: Mon-Fri: 10am – 5:30 pm and Sat 10am - 5pm; closed Sundays and all public holidays. Charals' web store will remain open after their physical store closes, so if you can't visit them in person, you can visit their web store at https://charals.com/   
 
Our warmest wishes to Shelina & her family, and thanks to everyone at Charals for 39 great years! 🥹 

Newest Acquisitions (Virtual "Show & Tell") ~ part 547

With so many students graduating this month, I thought it'd be a good time to post Christopher's write up about a ballpoint that ties in with his own school days. It's a modern ballpoint with a lot of sentimental value, and here's the story behind it...

(photo courtesy of Christopher ~ please click on image to enlarge)

Christopher writes:
"Admittedly, I am not a die-hard collector of ballpoint pens, but do have a select few in my pen collection. One in particular, that has somewhat of a story to tell, is a pen which actually came to me as a sample, with the hopes of the provider to have me order a good number of them.

But the story behind this pen is somewhat interesting otherwise, because it involves a British style boys' private school that thrived in the Kerrisdale district of Vancouver, BC between 1940 to its closing in the fall of 1973. At its peak, it was the largest boys' school of its kind in British Columbia, with an enrollment in the early 1960s of some 265 boys. The school also had boarding facilities and could provide hot meals to day boys, if needed. I personally attended the school from 1953 through to its highest grade 9, coming away in June of 1964. But in 1973, when the school closed, strangely, it disappeared right off the map. Not only was the school torn down, but all the school's records disappeared as well. In 1998, I came up with the idea of incorporating an old boys' society in honour of the school and, at the same time, writing a book on the school's colourful history. This magnum opus, in turn, became several books, one of which was acknowledged by the Federal Government as an official BC history book. But while all this was taking shape, I was approached by a novelty company with a sample which exemplified the School and in turn touched my heart.

The school was, in fact, Athlone School for Boys' and, to this day, the pen that commemorates it quite rightly, has a special place in my pen collection."

Christopher--thanks for sharing your memories and some background about this historic BC school!