It’s not Thursday yet, but we still think nostalgic stationery deserves an early throwback. School children have especially been keen protectors of their sharpeners, rubbers and newly bought sets of fruit-scented gel pens. We completely empathise because a black and yellow Staedtler pencil, freshly sharpened and straight out of the box, was always lent out with a reluctant tug back in the day.
Click start to play today’s Word Search, where words like “blackboard” and “glue stick” take you on a trip down the memory lane.
Tablets and whiteboards have altered much of that 1990s school experience. Stationery items that we absolutely preened ourselves on owning are pretty much out of fashion. Imagine a kid carrying a bendy rubber pencil (how did we even sharpen those?) in their case today – so not cool. Colour-coordinated, sleek designs featured on popular study blogs are all the rage now.
Let’s take a look at five old-school school supplies that make us wish we were back in the classroom:
1. Stackable Pencils
As impractical and prone to breakage these were, stackable pencils mysteriously showed up in every nook and cranny. There would be one in the teacher’s pen holder, another few tucked under the students’ desks, and then when you went home you found a lone stackable buried at the bottom of your book bag.
With a see-through glittery barrel and a matching colour rubber on top, a stackable or multi-point pencil could have been fashionable to have around. When one pointer dulled, you could swap it with a sharp nib by sticking the old one through the back. But as soon as a pointer was misplaced, your pencil would become as good as useless.
2. Scented glitter pens
Filling out a friend’s birthday card or slam book without a trusty glitter pen was unacceptable. Select few students owned a set since they were a little on the pricey end, especially those that came with silver and purple pens. Whatever you were writing instantly increased in value, all because your message now smelled like grapes and sparkled in light.
3. Crank pencil sharpeners
Everyone knows that a crank pencil sharpener gives you the sturdiest and sharpest pencil lead. You were lucky if your homeroom teacher had one on their desk. Not only did they sharpen pencils the best, but they were also fun to crank, to the point that your stationery would come out half the size if you weren’t paying close attention.
4. Metal geometry box
Whipping one of these out during math class to measure your angles with a protractor always felt cool. Unused set squares later became the alternatives to misplaced rulers. Many other items were rarely put to use, but the mandatory geometry box gave kids an extra rubber, sharpener and a pencil case. A win!
5. Ominous pencil and ink rubber
One side of the rubber was meant for pencils, but did the other coarse end really erase ink? We put it to test repeatedly and came away with torn pages.
What other stationery items did you use in school? Play today’s Word Search and tell us at games@gulfnews.com.
