Crayon Colors

I was writing a poem recently and used a crayon-colors metaphor, so I went to the crayola website to validate the names of the colors in my memory. The box of 64 used to be the top of the crayone line — the compact box with the built-in sharpener and three tiers of crayons. Now there are containers with 96, 120 and 150. Compulsives like me would love the “twistables” crayons, each with its own auto-sharpener.

There are new gem tone colors (like lapis lazuli), colors that have been retired (bye-bye thistle), and colors that have been renamed (e.g., flesh is now peach (logically, most of the skin color on this planet isn’t that peachy color)). Some of these color names were my first introduction to great words: raw umber, mahogany, burnt sienna, goldenrod, and periwinkle — to name a few.

I may just have to go out and buy myself a crisp, new box.