Veteran OfficeMax employee Drew Hillenberg regaled younger staff members on Friday, sharing his stories from a bygone era when gel pens were among the hottest sellers at the big-box business supply store. Man, I remember back in 97, gel pens were hugeId sell boxes of em every day, it was that crazy, said Hillenberg of the fluorescent water-based gel writing instruments, adding that he knew gels were going to be big when customers began regularly asking for them by name in the late 90s. I remember blue, green, and purple moved pretty fast, but clear? Damn. Wed have to restock those babies twice a day. It was really something. Hillenberg went on to inform coworkers that while the current demand among the stores customers for water-based rollerballs was impressive, it was nothing like what we used to see for gels. 