Verner Column: School days and school supplies

I enjoy office supply stores. There’s something about all those instruments and materials used in writing that appeals to me. Sometimes I’ll just go in one and wander around looking at what’s available.
Now it’s funny that I still like to do that since I only use a pen these days for taking notes. These days I mostly buy paper for the printer, but it’s nice to know that other supplies are available if I need
them.

I think my attraction to office supplies started with school supplies. I loved school, so the prospect every year of getting new notebooks, pencils, pens, paper, glue and erasers made the late summer
special. This was before the day of various characters plastered all over notebooks, so we had to decorate them ourselves.

I was partial to airplanes in elementary school and spacecraft in high school, although I went with a plain blue notebook senior year. I was into literature then, but my image wouldn’t stand up to Emily
Dickinson’s visage on my notebook. 

I remember in elementary school that TV Time Popcorn had an offer of a combination pencil box and multiplication calculator. (Check out
http://www.timepassagesnostalgia.com/&searchkeywords=tv+popcorn+pencil+box&sis=-1&rdir=1 for a picture.) You slid the plastic marker along the numbers and it told you that 7 x 8 was 56 or whatever. 

There was considerable debate at my school about whether it was legitimate to even have one of these proto slide rules since students could multiply without (horrors!) learning their multiplication tables.
The final conclusion was that they were all right provided that we knew the multiplication tables and just used the calculator to check our work. We couldn’t even imagine a portable calculator or even a
desktop computer since computers in those days were the size of large rooms. It’s interesting how something that didn’t even exist then has come to be a necessity for students.

We also were able to get from the drug store free empty cigar boxes to hold our supplies. The boxes were made of actual wood, not paper like the school supply boxes now available. I believe I remember
seeing plans in a magazine for a canoe built out of cigar boxes, although that seems as likely as a car made out of popsicle sticks, but I’ve found some references to cigar box canoes, so they must have
been possible. I’m not sure I would want to ride in one, though.

When I became a teacher, I had most of my supplies provided, but I still got to go to the school supply store. Then, we had children and we got to take them out to buy supplies.  On one occasion with
our younger daughter Alyssa, she needed 3x5 note cards (used to take notes back in the day rather than cutting and pasting information into a document). For some reason we landed at Costco, and the
smallest amount the cards came in was 5,000. Alyssa used them all during high school and then I used them for several years before they ran out.  What a deal.

Now, with both children adults, I find that I can still experience the thrill of buying school supplies every year since our church collects supplies for kids who would have trouble affording them. That’s
something anyone can do, and you don’t have to wait for a drive. Just drop off a big bunch of paper or pencils at your local school or put something in the bins that some stores have. You’ll be a hero.

I can’t think of schools at this time of year without thinking of all the people who work with students. This past week I’ve been seeing groups of young people — new teachers, around town, mostly going
to lunch together. They look excited and a little scared. My advice to them is, enjoy going out to lunch every time you are able to. You won’t be able to go out on school days with about 17 minutes to
eat. And relax and enjoy working with the students.  You have plenty of people to help you out, and I hope they do.

I’m partial to teachers and schools since I was a teacher for so long and have been associated with schools even longer. I wish for everyone out there who works with our children a good and productive
year. I think the work educators do is some of the hardest and most rewarding labor I can think of. I hope you all have a great year, and I hope you have plenty of school supplies.

Dan Verner is a Manassas resident. He contributes his thoughts and stories to the Perspective page on Sundays.