Back in Time

This morning as my son opened up his Got 2b Glued hair gel there was some hard dried up glue caked on the inside of the lid. No surprise there since it is glue! Now instead of me giving him the "please put the lid on tighter next time" lecture that any on the stick mother would do, I instead was immediately taken back to a time long ago (and I mean looooooooooooong ago!) that involved hardened glue. It was in the fourth grade. My teacher's name was Mrs. Grow. It wasn't her hair style that brought back the instant recall... though this was the 70's and her hair was slicked back on top (possibly with Elmer's glue!) and the rest was propped high on her head in barrel rolls. Oh, I have great memories of fourth grade. But when I saw that hard glue this morning it brought back a memory of those days I had long since forgotten. Elmer's Glue Faux Fingernails! Not just any fake fingernails mind you, but Homemade Elmer's Glue fingernails. Yes, these puppies were not something you could just run to the nearest Wal-Mart and pick up when you were in need. Oh no. These took some time and effort.
The first step was to squeeze the glue into some kind of mold. The hole thingies in our rulers worked best, but we would often just squeeze it out onto some wax paper. Then when they were dry, we shaped them onto our nails with just a little moisture. Viola! Instant nails! I can still remember how they tasted as we licked them so they would stick. They didn't last all that long, but they made this 4th grader feel pretty clever. And they looked much more real if you painted them with colorful (purple!) nail polish.
As this memory was coming back into full recall, I started to think back about the other unique things we did back then. I remembered we all took bouillon cubes to school too. We would pull back the wrapper and lick at them all day. We really thought they were tasty! Bleh! I guess they weren't all that bad when you balanced them out with dry Jello.


Yes, Jello.

At least Jello actually tasted good. We took packets of it and dipped our fingers in the bag and then licked our fingers. Can you imagine the colorful tongues (and fingers!) in that classroom? Bouillon brown and Jello red! When I say we, I mean most of the class was doing this. By most, I mean the cool ones...ya know like me. Heh heh.

My favorite one of all was the melted sugar candy. The recipe was exchanged among all the classmates. It consisted of: (go grab your pencil!) 1 cup of sugar. Did you get that? Here, let me repeat it just in case you missed it: 1 cup of sugar. That's the recipe in it's entirety. A good recipe for most fourth graders. At least it was easily recalled when we got home and tried it out. The instructions were even more simple. Just pour the sugar in a pan on low heat until it is melted completely. It turns into a carmel brown liquid. Then pour it on a cookie sheet and let it harden. Break it up in little pieces, put it in a baggy and take it to school to suck on all day. I am starting to understand now why I had so many cavities as a kid!
In third grade outside at recess we would gather up all the leaves and make an outline of a house complete with all the rooms. We would even outline beds, tables, chairs, and toilets. Yes toilets. Well...what ya gonna do without one of them? We would have a whole neighborhood of houses going down the side of the school. That was a lot of fun!
I was trying to remember other things we did that were just as interesting, but I went blank. So I have decided to ask you...my bloggy readers, what things YOU did as an elementary schooler that was unique in some way. Even if you're a regular lurker, (and I love my lurkers!), now's the time to speak up. Please tell me the things you and your classmates did that I haven't included on my list, or more importantly that I have. Did anyone else do any of these bizarre things too? Share away! I can't wait to hear what you did. I am hoping they will spark a memory of some other things I forgot about! Leave the time period you were that age as well just for fun. Do things change all that much with each generation? Guess we will see!!! Get thinking and start reminiscing! In the meantime, I'm off to try out faux fingernails with Got 2b Glued!