....notebook covers. I'm not sure what reminded me of them. Oh yes, I do.
It was my quick update a few minutes ago about dusting off second-hand schoolbooks! Now there's a memory. We never had to buy textbooks in school, did we? Each semester, we'd get a set handed down through generations. If you were lucky, you got a newer copy. I invariably ended up with ones that had been bound with cardboard covers tastefully patterned with green, blue, or pink flowers. The ink-stained books were paper sentinels to history...containing scribbled notes, diagrams and one particularly sappy - and forgotten letter - to a secret crush. The books also contained the occasional silverfish, which were promptly shaken out of the book and stomped on. As one does. I don't believe the silverfish ever got a vote, and that's troubling.
The notebooks, however, were another matter. We had to bring them with us each school term and I loved going to the dark - and by extension - mysterious, stationery store in my neighborhood. Somewhere from deep within its depths, the store owner would pull out notebooks (ah - the smell of fresh paper!), pens, pencils, ink, while brushing off random cockroaches from a pile of geometry boxes . Topping the pile would be....brown paper.
There were variations on a theme here. You could get the regular kind, or the more expensive roll which had a bit of a plastic finish. I got the regular version, but threw in a bit of the expensive wrap only for my 'special' subjects...like English. Never Science. Never Science. Let me chew on that educational anomaly for a while.
Back at home, it was a project worthy of a craft fair. Lay out the roll of brown paper...measure each notebook...carefully cut a bit more than what was needed...trim, tuck and fold. Put a name tag on the front and stick the entire pile of wrapped books under the Christmas tree. Okay, they went straight to the bottom of my school trunk...never to be seen again.
Did you ever wrap your books? Or...do you still...?
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