How a 16-Year-Old Sparked My Longevity Mission

I’m so glad you’ve found The Pounce Pot! 

But what the heck is a pounce pot in the first place?! 

Turns out, my 16 year old, Larson, the overflowing font of—shall we say—unique information, has the answer. Our kitchen table is a place where he tosses interesting, but random, knowledge around like hot potatoes. Hey, did you know…? Did you see…? Listen to what I found out….

Keeping up with him is a challenge, but I try! 

“Mr. Metaphor” with a piece of the Berlin Wall in London at the Imperial War Museum.

(You can change your life, too. It’s NOT too late, and never too early. )

One evening around the dinner table, I must have mentioned his new pencils for school or some such, and immediately he lobbed my way: “Hey, Mom, did you know that the melting point of graphite is 3,650 degrees Celsius? Compare that to the surface of the sun which is 5,500 degrees Celsius.” 

Raising my left eyebrow is part of my usual response to his encyclopedic announcements: “Huh. How interesting,” I’ll reply, nearly always followed by, “What else do you know about it?” 

Larson thus follows this response from me with a stream of even more “fun facts,” as our family calls them.

I recall on this particular pencil-themed dinner, he segued from pencils to papyrus, from papyrus to the printing press, and then from the printing press eventually onto parchment paper facts.

“Did you know…that parchment was originally made of animal hide and people kept shakers of grit on their desks to help smooth it out so they could write on it?” 

I raised my left eyebrow, kept eating, and asked him to tell me more.

“Huh. How interesting. What else do you know?” 

I don’t think I will ever truly understand how my son acquires the mass volume of information that he files away to reference later for his hundreds of friendly, fun facts. YouTube? Books? School? Reddit? 

At any rate, his mini-lecture on these small “shakers of grit” sparked my curiosity, and after dinner I tried to search for them, not exactly knowing what they were called. 

My search for What were little containers of grit called that helped with writing in the old days? dead-ended with “ballpoint pens” and “chicken coops” as suggestions. 

Clearly not right.

My next attempt: What do you call small containers of grit used for writing on parchment paper? resulted in “sandpaper.” 

Another dead-end.

I would not give up until I found an answer, so I finally uncovered that numerous art museums and antique dealers have cataloged in great detail and provided photographs of the small containers. 

History of the Pounce Pot 

Turns out these little shakers are called pounce pots. These days, the word “pounce” used as a noun in this way is, of course, considered arcane; we would call the fine powder “grit.” 

Centuries ago, these little containers of sandy pounce—grit—were used, like Larson explained, to prepare paper to make it smoother and easier to write on. The pounce also absorbed excess ink to help speed up the drying process. 

Nothing like writing something important in ink and then having to wait around for it dry, I guess. My, how our “problems” have changed from those simpler times! 

My research on pounce pots continued. A quick search on eBay gave me even more visuals on the pretty little desk tools. Just like collecting cheeky salt and pepper shakers, I could certainly see how pounce pots would have been selected to suit each owner’s personality.

From fine sterling silver owls, to ornate colorful designs on ceramic, to simple wooden treens, pounce pots became an interesting curiosity to me. 

After a few evenings of digital window shopping, I decided to purchase a small wooden pounce pot. After it arrived, I unwrapped it to find a tiny, hand-written note taped to the bottom: “This belonged to Tom’s Grandfather Thomas.” 

“This belonged to Tom’s Grandfather Thomas”

Fun Fact: Did you know that the U. S. National Archives and Records Administration is actively looking for people who can read cursive to help them record and tag 200 years’ worth of treasured documents? What a fabulous volunteer opportunity!

Not only had I purchased a beautiful, old pounce pot, it had provenance! A past. A sweet note about its former owner. I admit to feeling sad that it had been sold, I assume at an estate sale perhaps, and had left Tom’s family. 

But I was happy that I had “saved” it from someone’s attic or a dumpster, and very proudly placed it on the shelf above my desk.

Staring at my new pounce pot while I worked and researched, I kept thinking about its sole purpose: to make writing easier and faster for Tom’s Grandfather Thomas.  

I kept mulling around this idea: easier and faster. 

That’s exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to use my research to help explain the enormous volume of data that gets published about aging. I wanted to help explain difficult concepts, compare data from respected yet different sources, and wanted to help sort it all out. 

Make it all easier. 

Speed things up.  

Like the grit in the old pounce pots, I wanted to help make my friends’ and family’s life easier by smoothing out the time involved in researching the latest insights, developments, and news about healthy aging from every agency I could find across the world. 

I wanted to speed up the process of sorting through the reams of information (and disinformation) that we are bombarded with daily. 

I wanted to BE a pounce pot. Full of grit. A helpful tool. A practical time-saving instrument. 

In a Nutshell

Now that you know what pounce pots were used for, hopefully my fascination with them makes sense now. 

It might be a stretch to compare myself to a wooden pounce pot, but I’m owning it. 

I’m all in.

I hope that you’ll join my friends, my family, my team, and me as we uncover the data together. We are fully committed:

• to The Pounce Pot, The Pounce Pot Post, and The (Weekly) Pounce.  

• to helping you understand the facts and current research surrounding aging. 

• to helping you not just find longevity, but vibrant longevity. 

• to helping you discover joy in aging so that you become an advocate for positive pro-aging - not just a pessimist fighting against it. 

Using the framework of our Five Essential Actions as your guide, I challenge you to join me on this path of discovery. 

Let’s pounce on life’s possibilities! 

I bet Tom’s Grandfather Thomas would be so proud of us. 

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