color me atomic tangerine___
WILD THINGS - - - - - > BY JOYCE MILLMAN 
WAXY, WARM PLEASURES OF _____________COLORING WITH YOUR KIDS. _____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ |
ALSO TODAY: Table Talk Spice of Life - - - - - - - - - - YESTERDAY: Little monsters Breaking point Mayo
culpa - - - - - - - - - -
Mamafesto Newsletter |
___________There's something about the smell of a fresh box of crayons. Really, there is, if you accept the results of a poll cited on Crayola.com, the Web site of venerable crayon makers Binney & Smith. According to this poll, adults placed the waxy, warm scent of (Crayola) crayons 18th on the list of Top 20 most recognizable smells in the world (coffee was No. 1, of course). But it isn't just the smell, it's the comforting orderliness of a brand new pack of crayons that still, unfathomably, thrills me. I love to see them lined up like crisp little soldiers, their points all pointy, their paper jackets intact, the box still stiff enough to support all eight or 12 or 24 or 48 or 64 or, if you're really lucky, 96, in formation. And the colors, the possibilities ... When I was a kid, a new coloring book and a box of Crayolas -- I am brand-loyal -- was one of the best presents in the world, so, naturally, I wanted to pass this pleasure on to my son. As soon as he outgrew the eat-your-toys stage, I started giving him coloring books and crayons -- needlessly, I soon found out, because crayons, so easy to buy, are the favored gift of distant relatives and friends without kids. And then there are those cheapo four-packs they hand out at child-friendly restaurants. According to Crayola's research, the average North American kid will have used 730 crayons by age 10. I think that number might be a little low. We have so many crayons, we're always finding never-used boxes stashed away in closets, desk drawers, everywhere. One present we did rush to open, though, was the Crayola Big Box -- "96 Different Brilliant Colors Featuring the Built-In Sharpener" -- and it still takes my breath away to open the lid, one year later, and see colors that I hadn't even dreamed of back in my youth when the 64 was the biggest box you could buy: granny smith apple, wild watermelon, mauvelous, sunglow, purple mountain's majesty, pacific blue, tickle me pink, atomic tangerine, mulberry, wisteria, wild strawberry, unmellow yellow. My childhood favorite, magenta, is still there, although, according to the expansive trivia list on Crayola.com, pretty lemon yellow and the unfortunate maize and raw umber were retired in 1991 to make way for those awesome new shades. As far as corporate Web sites go, Crayola.com is pretty cool. It's advertising, yes, but you can learn stuff from it, too, like where crayons come from and how the heck you're supposed to get glitter glue and allegedly washable finger paint off your kid's clothes. The site also offers interesting art projects for kids and their families. Crayola has deemed August "Color with Your Kids Month" and is running brief instructions each day on how to create life-sized family portraits and family collages. Admirably, Crayola.com is actually sending you away from the computer to spend time as a family. And, believe me, you can get to know a lot about your kids when you work on an art project with them. Every time I sit down with my son to color at his little table and chairs, I come face to face with all the ways that he is not me. I am a strict inside-the-lines colorer; he scribbles the page impatiently, leaving large parts untouched, and then abandons the coloring book to follow his own muse. I like to keep the crayons in their original carton, lined up according to hue; he has a bulging cigar box and a sagging Celestial Seasonings box filled with loose crayons and parts of crayons, with Crayolas and lesser brands intermingling (the horror). I gravitate toward the blue-greens and red-pinks; he seems to only ever use black (all the black crayons are ragged-papered stubs), plain old red and plain old green. I guess we're always going to color side by side, not on the same page,
so to speak. But that's OK; I get the whole coloring book to myself and
most of the Big Box, and he surprises me with his rapidly growing skill at
drawing family portraits and minutely detailed "Star Wars" figures on the
back of scrap paper. We quietly enjoy each other's company.
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