A Box of 64 Crayola Crayons.

I keep a box of them amongst my art supplies because they remind me of childhood. One whiff of the waxy crayon box and I’m transported back the days of West Elementary. The thrill of the first day of of school and getting a fresh box of crayons.

Kindergarten means the jumbo sized 8 pack of crayons. Not a large selection at all, but the crayons are fat enough that our small fingers can manipulate them. First grade we graduate to the thin crayons, still an 8 pack though. Second Grade we get 16 colors to play with. As we move up a grade, we get more colors to play with – 24, 48, and 64 colors in a box. I checked out the Crayola Web site and there’s a box that has 96 colors now and there are 135 different colors available by the time you add in all the specialty Crayons.

The blunting of the crayon through use I could take, but the snap of a crayon breaking used to irritate me. Somehow the breaking of that sacred little piece of wax made the whole box less interesting.

At the end of the school year, the box would come home and inevitably end up in the container with all the other used crayons. And the wait would begin for a new box in August.