Back Then

I found a couple of old, hot pink, wire bound, and wide ruled notebooks--each with seventy pages measuring 10 1/2 by 8 1/2 inches. You know, just to give you a picture... These notebooks date back to the 1991-1992 school year, when I was in the second grade, and were used to write stories for class assignments. For each story written I received a sticker of some sort to adhere to the back of my notebook. Oh, stickers...

Do you remember the excitement of stickers like I do? I mean, I would do practically anything for a sticker in elementary school. It's a good thing they were distributed by teachers for rewarding good grades and behavior because if it were the other way around... Woo! Who knows what kind of person I'd be today!

Think back though, to your elementary days of past filled with sticker glory... A gold star. The anti-littering sticker that urged us all to "Pitch In!" Those silly, smiley face stickers in bright colors. Valentine heart stickers that said, "CALL ME" and "FOREVER". (Of course now those stickers would say "TEXT ME" and "3 MONTHS".) All of the anti-drug and "Just Say No" stickers. And let's not forget the queen of stickers, Lisa Frank. But the most prized sticker of all...? Oh yeah! The scratch-n-sniff.

Seriously, how much fun was elementary school? Sooo much fun.

We enjoyed recess twice a day until the fourth grade. Because, you know, once you're a fourth grader it's time for the "real world". Lunch was filled with lunch tickets being punched (prior to this digital age), little milk cartons with skinny straws, jokes about sea food and mustard (I'll let you figure those out), and unrecognizable meals. Pencil boxes were cardboard and pencils had crazy eraser tops. Trapper Keepers were the shiznit way before the word "shiznit" was ever uttered. We checked out Where the Sidewalk Ends, The Berenstain Bears, Green Eggs and Ham, and Clifford the Big Red Dog from the library via those cute little cards tucked in pockets in the back of the books. Then we bought our favorite books through book orders and book fairs. (Amazon.com? No, thank you.) As we grew a bit older, we progressed to the "choose your own adventure" books. "To enter the dark cave in the mountain, turn to page 62. To climb the mountain, turn to page 35". Uh-may-zing. Math assignments consisted of adding 2+3 to figure out that all sections of the "color by number" design equaling 5 should be colored blue. "Heads Up 7 Up" was the best game ev-verrr, playing with a giant parachute was considered physical exercise, "show and tell" developed public speaking skills and built confidence, Pizza Hut encouraged reading with their "Book It" program, and folder forts were constructed on the tiny desks to protect against would-be cheaters.

One of my favorite elementary school fashion accessories was my rectangular backpack that was designed to mimic a locker. Forget backpacks on wheels, locker backpacks were and are way cooler. People don't seem to remember those though and it's too bad. Really, it's a shame. However, everyone does remember Hypercolor shirts, Zuba pants, those other pants girls wore with the elastic band that went around the heel, B.U.M. Equipment, inside-out sweatshirts, insulated sweats, and velcro shoes. Sooo classic.

Yeah, elementary school... Stickers for rewards. Two recesses and a lunch break. Whimsical school supplies. Solid reading material. Assignments were fun, games educational. (GeoSafari anyone?) Working out wasn't a chore. Fashion was comical. And we learned how to play the recorder in music class?!

I mean, wow... We had it all figured out back then.