It’s 2014 and I can’t help but feel that our kids are a little deprived.  Back to school supplies in 2014 are so lame.  White board markers, sheet protectors, highlighters.  Really?

I can’t believe it.  I just cannot believe that I sent our two boys to school without buying them each their very own Trapper Keeper.

Because that was a necessity when I was going to elementary school.

Mine looks like this:

I say looks because I still have mine.  Yes.  Don’t ask me why.

 

I would put paper clips in mine, along with notes and other important thing.  Why paper clips?  Well.  If I found these:

then, I’d create my “braces”.  Yes.  I would unbend the paper clip and form it to my teeth to  create the illusion of one having braces.  What kid didn’t want braces?  (The ones who got braces, I’m assuming.  My brother hated his braces.)

If only we would’ve had Pinterest back in the 80’s.  Then, I could have done something more meaningful with all of my paper clips.  Like this:

or this:

Whatever.  I was a paper clip braces wearing kid.

 

Do you know what I cannot fathom?  How in the world will Nate and Maxim have happy days in school without having these?  The best erasers EVER.

Surely you remember these.  They smelled soooo good.  I’m sure my teachers had to tell me more than once – “Angela, stop smelling your erasers and get back to work”.

 

Another thing that I loved…fancy pencils.  That smelled.

See, there was this store in Oskaloosa at the mall.  Not the current Penn Center Mall.  The old mall by Spinnin Wheels.  And in the mall was this little store which happened to be my favorite because you could by all manner of important items there, like smelly erasers, pastel pencils, and what have you.

 

Our boys aren’t completely deprived.  On occasion, I do slip back into my inner child and buy the boys stickers.  You see, I love stickers like no other.  But they pick out stickers that have hunting scenes with guns and deer skulls, football stickers, or basketball stickers.  I just can’t even imagine that they pass up ones like this:

Another great sheet of stickers that I always loved…

But my absolute favorite stickers were ones like these (and they were always expensive.  Probably 1.29 a pack)…

I had sea shell iridescent stickers and they were the bomb.

 

Back in the 80’s, when I brought my lunch to school (which was probably only when we went on a field trip), this was my cool lunch box:

Yes.  I know.  You’re jealous.  I really wanted one like this:

Oh, the Smurfs were the BEST.  And I would have loved a matching thermos to go with it.

 

Can we talk for a second about fashion?  In fifth grade, I had the best jeans ever.  They had a roller skating shoe on the butt pocket.  And the roller skate had a REAL shoelace that actually tied.  Be still my heart.  I wore them ALL the TIME.  Shoe lace dangling from my back pocket.  I was twenty five shades of COOL.

 

I would be amiss if I didn’t brag for one minute about my coolest shoes that I had in fifth grade…

I was totally rockin the kickball field in my purple KangaROOS.  And I always put a quarter in the shoe pockets…never know when one may need some cash.

 

Speaking of shoes…these were always on my sneaks.

Friendship pins.

I remember my mom buying me a new pair of shoes in second grade uptown at McGriff’s and the owner, Alan, waited patiently while I took ALL of my three thousand friendship pins off of my old shoes and put them on the new ones.  Our kids have no idea how cool it felt to hear the jingle of friendship pins from one’s tennis shoes.

 

Deprived.  Yes, they are.  Feathered hair and big combs in back pockets aren’t being seen in the halls of our schools.  I say we all scream in unison, “I WANT MY 80’s BACK”.  But our kids may not agree… (And I might pass on the feathered hair.)