FRUITY MARKERS? MILKY PENS? LIP SMACKERS? UNICORNS? Do you remember taking turns passing the grape-fruit marker, being so tempted to steal a few gel-pens from the person next to you, or putting on lipgloss just for the taste? Let’s take a look into these unforgettable ‘old-skool’ school supplies that you thought you couldn’t live without (and instantly made you the cool kid, right?).

1. THE SPACEMAKER

“Spacemaker” huh? Now looking back, didn’t this thing take up a quarter of the space of that tiny desk in grade 6, and weigh a ton in your backpack? Nonetheless, it is still the magical spacemaker because you can stuff all your pencil crayons, markers, gel-pens, lipgloss, erasers, and highlighters. For the super smart kids, the spacemaker was also a secret space for snacks!

2. THE GIGANTIC ART KIT

Did the kid sitting beside you ever bust this out, and instantly annoy you because it took up the entire two desks? Not to mention that those markers ran out after three uses, and had a very unpleasant smell. But for all the aspiring artists in grade school, or students who were just super extra, this was their most prized possession.

3. LISA FRANK SUPPLIES

The day I started believing in unicorns was the day I set my hands on a Lisa Frank school set. It was a unicorn-jungle-themed wonderland, sort of the psychedelic world, for kids!

4. MILKY PENS

All the teachers complained about using bright-coloured gel pens to take notes and write tests, but because we were such rebels, we did it anyway right? These also came in glow-in-the-dark versions, perfect for drawing in our gigantic booklet of construction paper.

5. LIP SMACKER

For all the girls who thought they had “swag” back in the day, this would have been a top priority in their back-to-school shopping list. The taste and smell was extremely fruity and delicious- all ready for your first kiss. You owned at least three different flavours, and bought a new set for every occasion. Do you recall the Halloween-themed flavours, “Cobweb Cookie,” “Ghoulish Grape,” or “Ghostly Grape?” Or what about the Skittles flavour? LIP SMACKIN’ GOODNESS!

6. TAMAGOTCHI

Technically this isn’t a school supply, but then again, this is just an old-school version of a cellphone… just way, way back when only adults owned cellphones, or when kids weren’t so spoiled. Some kids had two or three pets on their keychains or on backpack zippers, constantly anticipating beeping sounds so they can show off. This eventually died down when Neopets was introduced, right?

7. THEMED LUNCH BOXES WITH THERMOS

The old-school lunch boxes were the reason why I loved lunch time so much, because everyone got to see each other’s interests and personality this way. AND when you didn’t need them anymore, you can use them as pencil cases. Nowadays, we have paper bags or totes with advertisements on them. Those mini-Koodo totes have got nothing on the Power Ranger lunch boxes!

8. CHUBBY

School time grocery shopping only meant one thing: CHUBBY SODA. Most kids would finish the entire bottle by lunch time, that’s why the smart ones sneak in two or three more in their bag. For those kids whose parents never allowed drinking this, your parents were right, but still- you missed out.

9. THESE PENCILS!

Another cool innovation in the 90’s that eventually died. I do remember all the smarty-pants using this pencil, because it was so cool and innovative… and then you lost one lead, and your pencil was rendered completely useless.

10. SCENTED MARKERS

Mr. Sketch made all our dreams come true by bringing to life, the wonderful scent of fruits right through our markers. I remember on the first day of school when everyone would pass them around the row, sniffing the poor life out of these markers. Others got so excited they had marker all over their nose. But how fun was it to sniff and sketch?