Nostalgic 64

This afternoon, I gave Isaac a present. I actually had it at Christmas, but I didn't want it to get lost in the shuffle. This is a special present...to me it was, anyway. It's a box of brand new Crayolas. The "big" 64 crayon pack. Not the super fancy one with the built in sharpener, or the huge 108 count box that boasts more variety but rather just slightly changes the originals and rewrites a fancy name. Nope. This is a traditional box, all with beautifully sharpened tips, neatly falling in line like little colorful soldiers in their respective cardboard sections.
I remember that Crayolas were my favorite part of going to school. Each August, I'd get a new box, and though I would spend several minutes at a time looking at the colors, studying them and moving them around in the box, I wouldn't make a single mark with them until I was in school. They weren't to be spoiled.
So, today I sat with Isaac and we looked at all the colors. He quickly picked his favorites, just like I quickly picked them when I was his age. He selected royal blue and red, for obvious superhero reasons. Those are Spiderman's colors.
Back then, I would have raced my fingers to the magenta and thistle. Those were my go-to colors. Ironically, I didn't color with them much. I didn't want to "waste" them. Funny, now I don't know where all those magentas and thistles went. The almost new crayons, probably tossed in a trash along with the stubby black, the worn out jungle green, and the paperless orange-red. Then I remember the trend of coloring many patches of the rainbow onto a sheet of white paper, and then coating the whole thing in black so you could make designs with a toothpick and the colors would come through. I liked the idea, but I only used my death-row crayons for that. By this I mean my sorriest black, my ugliest blues, yellows and pinks. Never my nice new colors; this project was crayon massacre.
We were interrupted in our crayon admiration by a "test of the emergency broadcast system" that reassured us, it was only a test, but also noted that it was a regularly scheduled test of our nation's Homeland Security alert system. Like the kind of alert we might get, not as a test, if our country is attacked by terrorists again? Perhaps. Isaac turned his attention to the TV, asking me what it meant. I explained it was just a way to make everyone aware if there would ever be danger. His eyebrows furrowed.
So did mine.
So, it seems, while he and I can share the joy of a new box of Crayolas, the thought stikes me that my children's childhood may not be as carefree as my own was, as carefree as it's supposed to be. I know I'll do everything I can to keep things simple, but we're definitely in a different ballgame, now.
For the moment, though, I think I'm going to teach him how to make one of those "use up all your old colors and draw with a toothpick" projects.
And for the record, as of today, I think my new favorite colors are orchid and raw umber.