Do you remember?

I have been suddenly prompted to blog again by a question asked by my wonderful friend Roo earlier this afternoon.

'Do you remember' she said, or rather typed, 'when tool boxes were fashionable at school as pencil cases?'

And what's more, I really do. Mine was black with a yellow handle, from Wilkinson's and full of absolutely every kind of stationery you could ever need, from novelty shaped sharpeners to pencils with animals on the end, this tool box was the business. I have no idea what, or even who sparked this trend at my junior school but you could barely see over the top of desks in most classrooms because girls, and it really was mostly girls, had made themselves little forts out of their toolboxes and books. A similar thing would happen at Christmas where we would show off our cards by putting them all out on the desk in an aesthetically pleasing semicircle. I'm not sure quite how long this tool box trend lasted for, but I do remember quite clearly carrying it backwards and forwards from school every day along with a reading bag which looked like this:

...and my lunch box which looked like this: 

Although mine was, I think, 'unofficial merchandise' (I've still got it)

Add to the equation something of this nature, and I really wonder how I had enough hands.

But mine was not a plain boring old tool box, heaven forbid! I had liberally decorated one of Wilkinson's finest with stickers from the now sadly out of print music magazine Smash Hits. This brilliantly nonsensical (and at times rather too grown up for my 7 year old self) magazine would often dedicate its middle pull-out section to a GIANT poster, or stickers, or, if you were really really lucky that week, both. Bizarrely I even remember the first issue I ever bought, which had someone called Kavanagh on the front who I don't think anyone has heard of since 1997. The caption was 'Ooh aah Kavanagh'.... anyway I just bought it for the stickers. 

Girl Power! I'll love these girls forever!

Anyway, I could be wrong, but I think this whole tool box as pencil case trend was limited to Seely Junior School, because everyone I've told about it gives me a strange look, but honestly it is probably the reason I'm so obsessed with pens and notebooks to this day, though I'd like to think my tastes are slightly more refined in the 21st century.