color me nostalgic...

 Today my spouse and I huddled in front of his computer to order some birthday gifts for our soon-to-be seven year old granddaughter.  It's the 21st century equivalent of going to the mall.  We found several things we think she will like and arranged for them to be shipped to her home in Wisconsin.  One of the items was a box of Crayola colored pencils with retractable tips.  There certainly wasn't anything like them when I was a child, but the familiar green and yellow design on the box reminded me forcefully of the crayons of my youth.  Crayola crayons were definitely the best when I was in elementary school while Prang made the best water colors.  Everybody knew these truths.  Every fall, before the start of the school year (it had the decency to start after Labor Day in those years) we assembled our school supplies for the year - yellow number 2 pencils, an eraser, a ruler, a compass, a protractor, scissors and (even up to eighth grade) a fine new box of Crayola Crayons.  Depending on our family's economic situation each year, it might be a box of 16 crayons, or it might, wonder of wonders, be a big square box of 64 different colors.  I did love those crayons, standing like little soldiers in their perfect rows with all of their points beautifully untouched.  Of course that perfection couldn't last but it was a joy to use those new crayons.  One of my best school memories is of my third and fourth grade teacher, Mr. Sherman. Not because he was a particularly great teacher.  I remember being easily distracted from whatever he was teaching by watching his Adams apple bob up and down.  Think Ichabod Crane.  But his one saving grace was that, after lunch every day, he would dim the lights in the classroom and read to us for a half hour.  While he read we could just listen or we could color quietly.  Reading and art, two of my favorite things, combined for a blissful half hour every day.  Happily, i still love to read and I still love to create art.  I think I'll go out and buy a box of crayons tomorrow, and while I'm at it I'll buy some to contribute to the school supplies drives.  Maybe it will help someone else build colorful memories.