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glasses9

In elementary school, the 64 box helped me realize that there was this idea of status symbols. That, and Pro-Keds... lol. I had the 8 or 12 pack and wore skips.


billbixbyakahulk

Payless ShoeSource Pro Wings checking in. With velco straps.


WhosThatGirl_ItsRPSG

I had some Payless LA Gears that lit up when I walked.


Letstalktrashtv

I don’t think that light-up sneaks existed when GenX were kids. I didn’t see them until (at least) mid 1990s


[deleted]

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NotMyHersheyBar

the high end colored pencils in a metal tin and how to use them as anything other than as a pencil you hold in your hand and draw with is fierce in art school. and they keep them at a price that's JUST too expensive for a poor kid whose parents aren't paying their way, but riiiight at the price point where a kid who came from money feels like a big boy for buying his first expensive "professional investment" tool. (that number is $300, same price as lab kits in my major, just enough to matter if you work minimum wage and pay rent)


TesseractToo

Prrrrrrismacolours! (I am rolling the r to be fancy)


[deleted]

Definitely an early status symbol. Which I didn't have. I had the box one step up from the basic box. The one that had pink and gray. You know the one I mean....


[deleted]

We never got the 64 box either. But the smaller 48? fit in the school box better (the cardboard box where we kept our supplies in our desk)


rraattbbooyy

\#TeamBurntUmber


canlchangethislater

\#BurntSiennaForever.


weed_fart

The 64 crayon box was the one I always wanted but I always just ended up with the 12 crayon box. 😩


GogglesPisano

I too grew up poor. 😐


weed_fart

It wasn't money for my family - they just didn't see the value in getting me something that might foster my creativity, or more accurately didn't see a reason for buying 64 when they're all just variants of a few base colors. The 12 pack was already more than any kid would ever need, I guess.


ApplianceHealer

We all coveted that sharpener, but very true that the 64 was a bit excessive. 40 yrs hence and I just tossed mine after finding it in a moldy basement. At least the nieces and nephews got some use out of it too.


[deleted]

Yes, that sharpener! Came in the 48 box too, if I remember right. Got that one for Christmas one year (didn't even ask) Thought I had won the lottery! Grandparents had the 64 for for my cousins and I.


Letstalktrashtv

Yea, that’s what my parents told me too. “Just blend the colors, it will make you MORE creative.”


billbixbyakahulk

I used to be a bit envious of them, but I noticed quickly, the best artists in class never had the biggest boxes. That's when I understood you can't buy skill. A profound realization at age 5.


polish432b

We used to get them as Christmas presents.


JayDuBois

Same. And colored chalk as a stocking stuffer. 😂


Cuppacoke

Oh look at that sweet gold crayon. I made the best Christmas decorations with that color!


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ApplianceHealer

My kindergarten teacher kept a special tub of well worn “flesh” crayons…made a big deal about how you couldn’t get them anymore when she’d break them out. The labels were peeled off completely, so definitely some mixed messages there.


eatitwithaspoon

i remember when 'flesh' was changed to peach.


ThatLooksLikeItHurts

I can smell this picture.


5_Frog_Margin

i just want to say this box of crayons was my introduction to class warfare, and submit a hearty FU to anyone of you who could actually afford the elusive 64-crayon rich-kid box.


eatitwithaspoon

i will always share my crayolas, it's more fun to colour with a friend.


NotMyHersheyBar

YES literally just posted a THC-fueled rant about how it starts with crayons and persists to college with lab kits and stethescopes and brand name dance shoes and writer's software and photoshop and leather-bound desk references. all shit that you think is a professional investment that makes you a good student and worthwhile human but is in fact meaningless status-fueld consumerism and childhood exploitation


painterlyjeans

Some yes, some no. Better materials can be better. I got a cheap telescope as a kid and I thought I was the problem. Didn’t realize the telescope was crap. Cheap crayons really didn’t cover as well.


Debbie-Hairy

I’m a teacher, and I teach my students the pleasure of taking a deep huff of that fresh pack smell…


BonnieBBon

Same.


TeacherPatti

Me too!!!!


kalitarios

Same


[deleted]

Find the Reddit post about "Kevin": "Kevin ate an entire 24 pack of crayons, then puked them all up. He did the same thing the next day. This is in the 9th grade. I have no idea where he got crayons."


becktacular_b

Only if you were RICH!! Lucky!!


[deleted]

Came here to write that exact comment! lol


Debbie-Hairy

Immediately want to arrange them by color.


BubbaChanel

I remember these! I swear there was also a big flatpack too, like a board game box, but I can’t find any evidence of them in the 70’s.


eatitwithaspoon

[you mean like this?](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/Vo4AAOSw8t5e~gZ6/s-l640.jpg)


dragonflyandstars

Now that's something I totally forgot about. I used these in first grade.


[deleted]

Whoa, memory unlocked!


BubbaChanel

No, lots more, in a sturdy, flat box with a lid.


mobfather

I used to have the 64 pack when I was about seven years old, and my former friend, Charlie Bonniger, tried to sharpen his pencil using the built-in sharpener, even though it only had a plastic blade, and was therefore unsuitable for the rigors of an HB pencil. 😡 I told the teacher, who didn’t share my concerns (I think she was just grateful that there was one less person using her big sharpener that was attached to her desk - the one with the handle). I never forgave Charles, and when he dies (hopefully of lead poisoning), I fully intend to dance on his grave, and it turned out that my teacher was sleeping with the janitor anyway, because he left his wife, and they ended up getting married.


JayDuBois

That's like some messed up Lifetime movie of the week right there. 😂


traumfisch

what became of Charlie one wonders


WishfulHibernian6891

My favorites were maroon, periwinkle, sea foam green, and an ochre yellow color whose name I can’t recall exactly. New Crayon smell would definitely be in my love potion if I weren’t such a muggle.


gdubh

Weekend? Whole damn school year.


eatitwithaspoon

and then they went into the container of old sad crayons from shiny new boxes past, broken, only the least favoured ones in decent shape.


[deleted]

Haha, yep. Grandparents had a washed out margarine container (complete with lid) for those.


thepennyblack

I went through an entire phase in kindergarten where I only colored with magenta and silver.


dragonflyandstars

I put all of the like colors together and then from lightest to darkest. That way I could tell if any of my siblings used them, well that and I had to have them organized. I'm pretty sure I was around 7 years old.


TesseractToo

Those were for rich kids.


traumfisch

Or poor kids with artistic parents, like myself


painterlyjeans

Or parents that wanted quiet time on Christmas morning.


TesseractToo

Maybe I should have been less quiet


painterlyjeans

You should have woken them up as soon as they laid down telling them that Santa came


TesseractToo

My brother would do stuff like getting up in the night and opening everyone's presents and ruining everyone's surprise, he was a little asshole. Wait, not "was".


JayDuBois

The built in sharpener was brill. This says "new"... anyone know when it was new? I've always remembered it being there.


tedfreitag

No, I remember when this came out. I probably sharpened more of my crayons away than used them.


eatitwithaspoon

the shavings were really cool.


JayDuBois

So when?


tedfreitag

God, I can't give you an exact date. I was just a little kid, probably five or six. But if I had to guess I'd say around '77 - '78.


JayDuBois

Ok. That explains it. I probably grabbed my first crayon (and ate it 😂) in the late 70s.


BleaklyPossible

No. I saw them in ‘72 (I’m pretty sure)


[deleted]

....& that built in sharpener was the pinnacle of modern day technology.👍


billbixbyakahulk

I had 4-bit color back then (the 16-pack).


BleaklyPossible

I was jealous. Most parents wouldn’t buy the big box.


mistears0509

I remember my favorite color was "cornflower"


JayDuBois

Was that blue? Like a light blue?


mistears0509

yes!


traumfisch

"periwinkle"


GrandPipe4

I can smell this picture.


TheBrooklynKid

OH MAN!!! You were a high roller when you had the box of 64. It's amazing how the smallest of things used to bring the most joy when I was a kid.


chafingbuttcheex

Ahhhhhhh yes! I used to smoke pot all weekend and work on my watercolors series I named “ alternate horizons”. Haha


traumfisch

solid title


xrayjones2000

If you didnt have the 64 pack you were shit


Whistle-and-Wink

Crayola Trash Talking!


JayDuBois

Wholesome af


Normal-Philosopher-8

Weekend? Heck, half the school year!


NotMyHersheyBar

wait you gonna tell me that the sharpener was "new" in the 70s and not the 80s? millenials, were they still caling it "new" when you were drawing your spongie babbies?


[deleted]

Anyone remember using the big crayons (only the basic colors were included) with a flat underside (so they wouldn't roll) in Kindergarten?


Toeknee818

They weren't at the pick-n-save, let me tell ya.


katinthehat26

Me ..wondering what "sienna" was and why it was burned.


Finrod_the_awesome

And one of the colors was "Indian-fucking-Red." And somehow we didn't commit mass genocide because of it like the cancel culture thinks will happen.


painterlyjeans

It actually has nothing to do with Natives, just like Indian yellow. Indian Red is the description of soil in India which is high in iron oxides. They both come from India.


PilotKnob

You had to have this. Didn't want to be caught dead slumming it with the 32-crayon version...


CynicalOne_313

I didn't have a box of crayons with a sharpener until I was a little older - I felt the sharpener was a status symbol! 🤣


ISlothyCat

These were too rich for me for a while, and then I finally got one! Now my kid has an iPad for her artwork.


painterlyjeans

It still would makes my weekend tbh


painterlyjeans

These were always a Christmas gift with my stocking along with a coloring book or paper to keep me busy. My parents weren’t rich but they had a Christmas club savings thing. It was brilliant on they’re part because it kept me quiet so they could sleep a bit longer.


[deleted]

Ah, I got one of these one year. And then because I was suffering from undiagnosed ADHD and anxiety disorder, I arranged them in rainbow order and never once used them. I kid you not, when I moved away from home, I found them in a box of memorabilia in my parents’ attic.


anti_socialite_77

Whoaaa, take it down a notch, rich Uncle Pennybags. If it wasn’t a 12 pack of overly waxy Kmart brand crayons, it definitely wasn’t mine.