Age 7, Room 2

If you talk to anyone I know closely, they can tell you that seven was my favorite age. I was replaying my first grade year this morning between snooze alarms. Here are some random memories. 

This was the year that my sister and I began to go to school in separate buildings. She would get dropped off at the middle school and I, at the elementary school. I recall one time I had a total meltdown when she got off the bus without me. I cried like a fricking baby. I got to my class room at the elementary, still crying. I was met there by my 1st grade teacher who asked me over and over why I was crying. Too embarrassed to tell the truth, I lied and said that I was hungry. This got me some animal crackers and a hug. I felt better and realized that I really didn't care if my sister was on the other side of town. I had better things to worry about... like my colored glue business. 

I don't remember how it began, but the business of coloring glue was booming in room 2, first grade. There were a few of us who took part in this art, but I always considered myself the original. There were a couple of different methods of coloring the glue. The most popular way, was to remove the innards of a Crayola marker. Inside the marker was a felt stick coated with ink, wrapped in a tight cellophane layer. If you were experienced, you would remove the cellophane for optimal coloring. This felt stick would then be placed inside your glue bottle. It usually took about 10 minutes for the glue to be completely colored by the ink...after a strenuous shaking procedure. Later on, we were able to cut costs, by using only part of the felt stick per bottle. 

The second way was the break the tip of a Crayola marker off and insert that into the glue bottle. This method was usually only used if you were in a hurry. I will also add that the only reason a person would be in a hurry was because they stole the marker they were using. It was not uncommon to open your crayon box only to find that several marker tips mysteriously disappeared. 

After the coloring process was complete, we would then squirt the glue into "molds", usually consisting of butter dish lids and crayon box lids. The filled molds were then returned to the inside of our desks to dry. When dry, the creations were popped out of the molds and sold for ten cents each to other students.

Surprisingly, there was a hot market these creations. Partly because the cost of a school lunch was .90 cents and most of us had a bunch of dimes laying around. 

A variation later occurred. The molds would be filled with plain white glue and later colored with marker. This gave us more creative license, as the glue blob was able to hold more than one color. Oh, how I miss those days.