It’s a lie.
I was going to start this off by writing I was there to check out the cost of school supplies for a column.
But that’s a lie.
Just about every year, I feel drawn to the school supplies section of whatever store I happen to be in. Is it driven by a sense of nostalgia? Sure, there’s a lot of that.
There’s also the continuity. I look over school supplies and discover to my comfort that many of the supplies kids use today are the same as those I used back in the Neolithic age when I went to school.
The school supplies urge hits about the time school starts. And for students in Oak Park public elementary schools, that first day will be soon, on Aug. 31.
So there I was in the school supplies section of the Jewel-Osco on Lake Street in River Forest. I had looked up the school supplies list for third graders at Longfellow School. It was a lengthy list of 24 things, including items never heard of when I was a student, such as sanitizing gel, tissues and Clorox wipes. This is progress. In my day, we just stayed dirty and contagious.
But other than that, there they were, the school supplies I knew and – at least retroactively – loved:
* No. 2 yellow pencils (10 for 50 cents), a wooden ruler ($1.29), a spiral notebook (79 cents), a protractor ($1.49), scissors ($1.29) and on and on. All so pleasingly familiar.
And then there were the Crayola crayons. The list for the Longfellow third-graders specified the box of 24 Crayolas.
When I was in school, there was no set number of Crayolas we were told to bring. Since my family was not all that comfortable financially, I always had a small box of Crayolas. And I admit I felt a little shabby when I compared my box of Crayolas to other kids’ boxes. Call it Crayola envy.
A lot of the kids had the 24- box. A few even had the 64-pack.
I see Jewel-Osco is selling the 64-pack for $3.99. I could buy that – today.
I could even by the humongous box of 96 Crayolas, – with such mystery colors as Razzmatazz, Jazzberry Jam and Purple Pizzazz – for $5.61.
Man, that would have wowed them back then.
But it’s better today, specifying the number of Crayolas students should bring.
No kid should feel shabby.
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Paul Sassone is a freelance columnist for Pioneer Press.