Thursday, August 26, 2010

Favorite 70s and 80s School Supplies

Back to school is approaching! This reminds me of one thing SCHOOL SUPPLIES!


Here are some of my favorite school supplies from the 1970s and 1980s. You already know about my love of the Trapper Keeper, but here are a few super cool school supplies that rocked! Remember any of them?

The 1970s Peanuts lunchbox was a hit with kids!

In first grade, it was all about the Snoopy lunchbox. I thought it was the most amazing thing, despite the fact that my lunch was usually boring and healthy and contained carrots, celery, raisins and peanut butter -- very 1970s ... Back then lunchboxes were usually made of metal. Metal lunchboxes often rusted after Mom washed them too many times or they were exposed to rain one to many times.

Poochie, Poochie for girls! 1980s!
Hello Kitty pencil cases rocked!
Pencil cases were also something I really enjoyed shopping for. I loved Poochie pencil cases, Hello Kitty pencil cases and Little Twin Stars pencil cases. My love of pencil cases continued into high school. Instead of cutesy ones, I'd use those 3-hole-punch clear pencil cases that snapped into a 3-ring-binder. I was that kid who always had a pen or pencil in high school. This led to the usual, "Yo, can I borrow a pen?" question daily from that tough type of kid who never had a pen.


Marble notebooks and the tiny marble notebook memo pads rocked! In Catholic school, the nuns loved marble notebooks. They preferred them to spiral-bound because the papers were less likely to rip out and get lost. Today, as a non-student, I still like the look of the marble notebook but find the spiral notebooks more practical.

You may have already read about my obsession with Eraser Mates a while back. What was your favorite school supply from back in the day?





25 comments:

reprise vintage said...

i love old lunchboxes! i still have a couple of old barbie ones. i am older than you so my folders were pee chee folders.

Anonymous said...

I had a plastic Garfield lunch box which I loved...yet I don't remember being that in love with Garfield. I was such an odd child.

Macey said...

I had a Peanuts lunchbox!!

TS Hendrik said...

I never had a lunchbox. Always brown bagged it. But years later I've come to the conclusion that food tastes better after it has sat in a pile, mixed up, inside a brown bag.

Big Fat Gini said...

I'm pretty sure I had a Peanuts lunchbox somewhere around first grade(ish). But my favorite treat was when my mom would take me to the Hello Kitty Store in the mall and let me buy a bunch of stuff I really didn't need!

By the way, my 10 year old mentioned something about a classmate having erasable pens. I hated those things!

Salt said...

I had that Poochie pencil case!! I was so obsessed with her. My favorite things were always my Trapper Keepers though. I used to decorate them in puffy stickers.

April said...

Trapper Keepers, lunchboxes and pencil cases were my favorite things to shop for for back to school supplies. Those and Lisa Frank folders to put inside my Trapper Keeper.

April said...

@ Salt- OMG! Puffy stickers! Loved those things. And the shiny, sparkly ones too.

The Random Blogette said...

My 4th grade son actually had to buy a trapper keeper for school. I about died when I saw that it was actually on his list this year. I just bought him a random red one and they are so not as cool as the velcro enclosed ones that I used to have in school. They have some random snap or something like that. I remember not being able to have them at one point because the velcro sound was annoying to the teachers. I too went to a catholic grade school...well for 5 years. Yes I am a mean mom for getting him a plain red one. That bitch was $9.99!

And those erasable pens always remind me of my grandparents. They were/are obsessed with them and always had them all over their house. I hated that they always seemed to smear.

MoonDoggie said...

Never had cool metal lunchboxes only dodgy plastic ones - I'm trying to rectify that now.

I remember the most popular pencil cases in high school were plain vinyl ones where people would write all over them (bit like the canvas backpacks). In primary school I remember having a box smurf pencil case once - loved it.

Jeanne C. said...

Did you used to go to the Hello Kitty store in Roosevelt Field??? They had the best pencil cases and smelly erasers! Smelly good, I mean!

My son needs a pack of erasable pens for school this year, and I can't find those buggers anywhere!

Jill said...

I will never forget my metal lunchbox. It was Muppets... with a big Animal on the back of it. And matching thermos of course.

Anonymous said...

I know you've talked about the trapper keeper before, but it's by far my fave in this category!!

Pat Tillett said...

I never used a lunch box, but my wife has several old barbie boxes...

Erika said...

Totally had one of those cutsie little Hello Kitty pencil boxes with all the funny little compartments when I was a kid. I think I got it for Christmas. I was pretty obsessed with it. I am still the kid that always has a pen.

Copyboy said...

Figures you liked the marble notebooks – all real writers loved 'em.

Joe Cap said...

Anyone my age may remember those yellow 'peachy' folders we had in the 70's...they had a drawing of some basketball players on them, and the way they were posed we used to draw pictures over them of one guy hammering a stake into the other guy.
Ah, no way to describe this if you haven't seen it...

baygirl32 said...

I was the loser kid who never had a pencil, but I did have the coolest snorks binder (just one) that I carried to all my classes and stored all my 'homework' in it (when I did homework)

Marlene said...

Ahhh...memories. Funny, I'll walk into a store around this time of year and see all these wonderful supplies and almost WANT to buy them just for the sake of buying them...even though I don't need them.

(Oh, and I ALWAYS had pencils and pens.....so I hear ya on the losers!)

liz said...

i remember when we were allowed to start using pens in school, but they had to be the erasable kind. And that kind always smeared all over the paper.

LaraAnn said...

I had the Rescuers lunch box. After that it was a Tupperware one. I loved marble notebooks. That Poochie pencil case is so cute.

Bossy Betty said...

I always had to eat school lunches and never had a lunch box, but I always wanted one! Is it too late?

Teachinfourth said...

Had a plastic, Benji lunchbox in elementary school. I would fill it with rocks to take home for my collection and eventually broke it by throwing it up in the air and letting it hit the ground.

Ah, the good old days...

~ Noelle said...

I loved going to the hello kitty store and buying all the stationary...
sanrio surprises..
please tell me you know what i am talking about

Funnygirl2004 said...

Loved the Pee Chee folders. Also, Mead had a binder that was coverd in blue canvas. Loved those.

I developed an obsession with pens. I love back to school shopping so I can stock up on pens!

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