My daughter has hundreds of colour pencils. And crayons and erasers, rulers, pencil boxes, colour pencils outnumber the by far. Everywhere I look, I see them lying around. They’re all different lengths, all coming originally from different boxsets, some given by people, some won at sand art contests.
Kind of the same types of colour pencils I had when I was small. We had this steel pencil box (yes, they had steel pencil boxes on those days. Especially those ‘Oxford Instrument’ ones that originally contained a compass, a ruler, a set square and a jangkasudut…). We would put all our colour pencils in it.
Speaking of colour pencils and other stationery, there were certain things that were done a certain way:
- We never sharpen both ends of the pencil. Only end that is supposed to be sharpen. Apparently, something bad will happen to you if you did. Phooey. When you’re 8 years old, you believe every crap your elder brother tells you.
- I never fancied those pencils with the attaching eraser at the other end. Because, the eraser will inadvertently run out faster than the pencil, leaving the steel bit sticking out. I hate that.
- Speaking our erasers, the only type we had was this flat rectangle type, with the top part coloured green, and the rest in white. There was a colour picture on one side of the eraser, usually an alphabet like ‘D’ and there would be a picture of a dog (‘D’ for dog, get it? Good). I never found out why the top part was coloured green, though.
- There was another type of eraser, that usually came in the ‘Oxford Instrument’ set. It was dark blue, shape in a rhombus. We were always told never to use those, because it was a pen eraser and using it would usually tear our pages.
- When it came to colour pencils, everyone used to Staedler Luna brand, with a sailboat on the cover. Standard set came in 8 or 12 colours. The first colours to finish were blue, red and yellow (for colouring human skin. Yes, I’m Chinese). Nobody used the white colour. Why do they even give you a white colour when you can’t see it?
- Those rich kids in my class would have expensive steel case colour pencils, with 24 or 36 or 194 colours, with exotic shades like gold, sanguine and Moonlight Cherry. Everytime they whipped out their set, the rest of us would go “oooh†and “aaahâ€.
- Then there were those fusspot kids that only used one corner of the eraser. They NEVER the other corners, as ‘it was new’. Weird kids. I used every corner. Yep, I’m scruffy.
23 Comments
mudslinger
haha! i remember those expensive colour pencils like faber castell, the envy of many…
yuin
I used to collect those picture erasers(when I was a kid). We’d play them on the table and see which one can overlap the other (you’d know if you’d played it before). Think I’ve still got a full show box of them back home.
andycjw
great observation, especially the white color pencil thing, kids never use it
obeliskdee
my gawd…dats so true weh…altho i m just hitting 21 it seems like those things happen like ages ago like in zaman paleolitik. I felt old now…kids these days r so rich…they dun even use those square erasers leh, they use those like mechanical pencil that can “click click” and called it mechanical eraser. I oni use kilometrico pens but they use hi-tech PILOT G1, G2, G3 and etc and also Carera pens. I wonder why kids these days so ‘hou meng’ (good life)…maybe a slim PDA buku latihan in the future??
jacy
I agree with obeliskdee, these kids now havin all we wish we cud hv last time. Although I’m also gonna hit 21, this post remind me so much of the good old days – square eraser, Luna, staedler 2B pencil…
Guess this things will be in museum in another 5-10 years lor.
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Zer0
194 COLOURS? Wow, haven’t seen that before. Yeah, i remember that rubber overlapping game. The winner gets to keep the loser’s rubber.
consuela
hehehe…
i remember those color pencils…those were the good ol’ days of coloring books…alamak….now I feel so old! hahahaha
Jayelle
hahaha.i bought a box of faber castell in form5 for fun..and am having it till now..almost four years later.
🙂
Ehhh i had a dream about you you know!! I dreamt i went back in time and saw you during your uni days. you were so young there and so ..um, action! hahaha. then I remember thinking to myself: “Ohmigod. that’s simon. I KNOW how he looks like when he’s older. This is SO weird.”
ponytales
I keep 100++ colour pencils in a steel chocolate box (Cadbury type). Collect from different sets and any stray ones that I found on the floor in school or at home. On Birthday, the only present I want is another box of color pencil. Sigh…I am a color pencil addict :p
pelf
WOW, this post brings back so much … “memories”.. 🙂
lilian
Sobs…I never get to buy any colour pencils when I was young. So now I splurge them on my kids. However, they don’t like colour pencils. But one son has hundreds and hundred of erasers. We probably have spent almost RM1K just for his passion which has fizzled out now. The Japanese erasers cost a bomb. One day I blog them.
yan
wah so relatable haha..yep still remember those good old days..
ya know what i do with the metal tip that used to hold the rubber..i chewed on them, it tasted horrible though, but i will keep forgetting and began to chew on it again. 🙁
Glad those stuff are now rarely seen.
FYI the white color pencil can be used. Its only when i took design and use crayon i found out that the white is use after applying other color. Its mixed with the colors to create a pastel look..go and try…
But as a kid i used to cursed that white color pencil as well (lol)
Anyway cool post!
Boone
Ah Simon,
You certainly brought back some memories….whch lead me to remember these things called “magic colours”, a notch up from the regular “Luna” variety. As to why it is “magic”, it forever remains a mystery. Eventually in Form 1, one smarty pants classmate decided to distinguish himself from others by referring to them as “felt tips”; which I guess, makes a little more sense than “magic colour”. Go figure.
eSSeNtRiC
We were told by our parents or older siblings never to sharpen both ends of the pencil because “something bad” will happen. That “something bad” is so that you don’t poke your eye while you are so engrossed in colouring right? Heh.
lucia
i remember when i was a primary school kid, i only had colour pencils but no magic pen (colour pens, actually but as boone pointed out, why it is call magic is a mystery). my parents can’t afford to buy magic pens for me and how i envy those with magic pens. everyday i would wish one day, my parents can somehow or other afford to buy me magic pens.
as for eraser, you mentioned the flat rectangle type… i remember that but i remember the one i had, pelikan brand, it was one part in grey (for ink) and the rest white (for pencil), not in green. yeah i remember those dark blue rhombus shape pen eraser. very hard. true, if not clever at using will tear the pages.
ahh… memories of what we used in school… so sweet.
dazzle
btw, my “cheap” office is still using that eraser with green on the top!! and mine is G for giraffe!!!! so cheapskate…can’t even get a decent eraser for us! damn!
simon
mudslinger – yeah! faber castell! that’s the expensive brand! i use their erasers now.
yuin – er… can’t imagine the game la… show some pix la.
andycjw – we sometimes use white to color the clouds, but they make any difference on our white paper!
obeliskdee – actually i had a mechanical eraser once. but once the rubber finished, i never bought the refills! i dun even know where it is now…
jacy – we only use 2b. no idea why, but we all hated those HB pencils!
consuela – i still use color pencils!
zer0 – i’m not joking. my friend’s parents bought him this exotic box with 200 colours. how many colors do you need in primary 1?!
jayelle – eh hallo! i’m not that old la!
ponytales – have you seen my daughter’s collection?! 🙂
pelf – glad to help!
lilian – wah! you must show us a pic of this japanese eraser!
yan – actually, yeah, a lot of designers and artist love white. but not school children. the white colour pencil will always stay sharp!
boone – i think the ‘magic’ refers to the vibrant color. something you’ll never achieve with crayon and colour pencils. but i never liked magic pens. they dried out too fast and seeped through our thin exercise book papers.
essentric – haha… never seen that happen. yet.
lucia – i never got to use those hard pen erasers. by the time i reached secondary schools, everybody used Tipp-Ex, Liquid Paper or Pentel.
simon
dazzle – tell them you already have G, then collect the whole alphabet!!!
Jayelle
Older as in older than your uni age lah! you were a young boy in my dream:) hahahahha. Now you are a young man. Seeeee..Older. Not OLD-er.
simon
oooh… okay… maybe you shouldn’t eat so much maggi mee b4 you sleep…!
Pat
When I went back to hometown during CNY, I still saw the pencil cases and colour pencils in my room.
I looked at them and was immediately transported back to those days again 🙂
luxferi
Actually the white colour pencil has its uses. I watched it often on Art Attack when Neil would use it to draw on a dark blue/black paper (sugar paper for us) – anything really, from silhoutte to all-white scenery of a hill, some trees and moon. For better effect, he even uses chalk for moon as later you can rub it for a illuminating effect.