I tried to remember what it was like to go back to school but I couldn’t get beyond “Glad that’s long past.” As for excitement about new school supplies, I was more apt to feel anxiety that I had the wrong stuff.

However, there were some moments in the 70s, when my school days were over, that I would buy cheap scribblers because the covers were so strange. Cowgirls, for example:

These images seemed at least  20 years out of date, and the stock could just have been old in the country stores where I usually bought my scribblers.

Cute animals or scary clowns also had special appeal.

These scribblers with the pictorial covers were used in Elementary school, but in Junior High you progressed to boring, plain-covered “exercise books.” This is a wrapper for some I got for a good price.

Apparently “scribbler” is not a term that is used everywhere. Maybe it is Canadian or even more regional?

The front of a scribbler might show sweet “David  Copperfield and his Mother”. . .

…but the back was all business with arithmetical tables where you could compare avoirdupois weight to apothecaries’ weight. Endless fun for developing minds.

Here are some older, used covers that probably date from the 1930s. Movie stars:

Some surprisingly good taste illustrations:

Humorous:

Even advertising covers. (Sugar as “energy food” has quite a heritage.)

When little Ethan and Olivia returned to school this week they probably had scribblers with sparkly Disney characters that I do not recognize. But maybe a few of their note books had illustrations of children and animals…

…and who could resist a happy kitten!

Post script

When we cleaned out the old family cottage in Bridgetown I found the disintegrating yellow plastic rain coat I started school with in 1952. At the time I was very skeptical about the big illustration of Gene Autry on the back. I had never heard of him and cowboy raincoats felt like a mistake. But Gene and Champion ride on, now in our garden shed in the Cove.