Sweet Nostalgia

The Loose Leafs (Leaves) of Fall

by Karen Richman

I still get a shiver down my spine when I hear the sharp click of those metal rings closing because I always caught my fingers in them.

It was the sound of the three-ring notebook that heralded Fall for me, for each late summer, just prior to the Labor Day weekend, my mother and I went shopping at the local stationery and school supply store. There was no Walmart as yet in the East and Staples wasn't founded until 1986, so local school children were more or less relegated to this one stationery store which cleaned up this time of year.

While the local five and ten had pens, pencils, some notebooks, and the like, you really had a choice if you went to Schmidt's. You always began with the three-ring binder, a dull gray-blue hue that begged to have gold stars or stickers or something put on it to jazz it up. As the school year progressed and often the monotony and boredom of a dull day in the classroom, some students took to doodling on the rough-hewn covers.

After you selected the three-ring notebook and determined how big the rings should be, next came the dividers with their colored tabs. They always gave you extra little white inserts to write on in case you changed your mind as to what subjects would be represented or worse yet, if you spelled something wrong!

Then it was time for the lined paper. Should it be three-hole, which is really all you needed, or five? How wide should the spaces be within the lines? That decision was usually based on how big or clumsy your handwriting was. And what about the reinforcements? I hated those things. They were those white, round things you had to lick and then put over the paper holes so the holes wouldn't rip. Well, the reinforcements had a horrible taste, I always slipped getting them exactly over the holes, and in so doing all this stuff I ripped a lot of paper.

Next came pens, pencils, and at least one good eraser (that was the "delete button" in the '50s and '60s). You always had to have a good eraser, and I loved having a marker or two...Sharpies were not around until 1964 but Magic Markers were, and every kid wanted one or two, especially if they could get them in a color.

As we got older we had to get those hated things like a compass and protractor. To this day I don't know what the protractor was for which probably explains my ongoing confusion with geometry.

Next stop was Wuenches, the shoe store where the salesman carefully measured your feet, had kept a record of your growth throughout the years, told you what a big boy or girl you were getting to be, and then performed my favorite trick. He got up on a ladder that had wheels and seemingly flew down the rows of boxes piled to the ceiling to grab this box of penny loafers, those Keds sneakers, saddle shoes, and anything else my mother decided I needed. If you were good and didn't squirm and let the salesman use the shoehorn to make the fitting easier, you got a pencil box when you left that slid both right and left so you could deposit and then easily retrieve your pencils.

No back-to-school trip was complete without getting a new lunchbox, the one from last year smelled like tuna fish and was dented, so it had made its way to the rubbish can. Who knew then that today a vintage lunchbox could be worth a fortune? Especially the one I selected which was Superman. I loved Superman, watched every episode on TV, and from time to time would tuck a large towel around my neck and jump off a bed or a couch or a swing, pretending to fly. That's also how I broke my wrist and wound up in a finger-to-bicep cast for eight miserable weeks.

Each new school year always brought a trip to the eye doctor for the yearly exam. I wore glasses, and it seemed like every new school year my prescription changed. When I complained, Dr. Rosen would counter with, "But you have to see the board, Karen, or else you'll fail." He could have given me a telescope, and it still wouldn't have helped me pass geometry!

The last stop on the back-to-school shopping outing was for a first day of school outfit. You always had to have something new or special to wear. Unlike today, it couldn't be a new pair of jeans because dungarees as they were called back then were not allowed to be worn in school...unless you were the janitor. So for me, it was usually a jumper and new blouse with my new shoes from Wuenches. As I got older it was a skirt and sweater or even a dress, but how we primped and polished ourselves to meet the new teachers and greet our old friends asking the proverbial question, "How was your summer?"

While buying school supplies and new shoes hasn't changed, the "what" of it has changed. Now it's backpacks, new jeans with rips in the knees, and a pair of sneakers with some sports figure's signature on them driving the price into three figures.

Sure, everything's different today, but there's one thing that has not changed. When the bell rings that very first day of school for the new year, there will forever be a little skip of a heartbeat, a little trepidation, and a little excitement as the next generation goes through those doors pointed toward the future.