Back-To-School Supplies

This used to be my favorite time of year. All the new pens and pencils and pads and binders were displayed for the fascinated school kids to choose from. I don’t remember a list of school supplies being handed out but there probably were some requirements for the parents to purchase before the rug rats attended class. Who could teach a student without a #2 pencil?

We didn’t have backpacks back then, just three-ring notebooks slung under our arms as we stacked books on top and walked to school (yes, in the snow). The binders were basically cardboard wrapped in a denim material that you could write your name and maybe a heart for your girlfriend with a magic marker.

The markers had just been invented and were felt tipped pens in limited colors and full of alcohol (our first high).

Pencils and crayons and writing tablets haven’t changed much since time begain but the ballpoint pens changed the use of Sheaffer’s cartridge fountain pen with replaceable cartridges to BIC roller ball pens. If you couldn’t afford a Cross pen be prepared to replace your shirt for all the pens leaked.

Art supplies like construction paper and scissors and white glue and staplers, (though you had to have permission to use a stapler) were somehow provided by the school, whether it was in the budget or a teacher’s gift.

So moving into college, there was a list of supplies to acquire from the local paint store. A tackle box was filled with required utensils for becoming an artist and we proudly carried around this as a badge of identity until we realized we didn’t need to bring all this stuff every day. The second year we divided off into different categories and a whole new set of tools.

Upon being hired to a ‘real’ art job I found all new instruments necessary to perform in a professional status. While artist in the production area used box cutters and pica poles, the ‘art staff’ had drawing boards and adjustable lights and t-squares and x-acto knives.

Then I went all ‘gear head’ with buying everything from Rapidograph pen sets to German precision compass sets to metal triangles and trays attached to the drawing board to hold all the adjustable pencils, knives, rulers and other tools of destruction. These were still manual days of print and copy and paste with rubber cement or wax, but digital was just around the corner.

There are still drawers full of markers and pads and pencils and rulers but much of the high-grade mechanical tools of the trade have been discarded to the computer.

The back-to-school ads make me wonder when the students will put aside the pencils and pick up their phones?