Have you ever taken a box of Crayola crayons and matched up the colors of the crayons with things around you? Well, I have, lots of times - it's amazing how thorough Benny and Smith have been over the years. On one particular occasion several years ago, my husband, son and I were on our way to Mariposa one day to see family when it occurred to me that there was probably a shade of green in my crayon box for every tree in Mariposa (and there is). It also occurred to me that it would be great working in the department which comes up with the colors and the names. Doesn't that sound like fun? I made these comments to my family and for some reason, they thought I was a little bent. Little did they know!

When it was announced that Binney and Smith were going to delete some "old" colors and introduce some "new" ones, I went on a rampage around town in search of a brand new box of all the original colors before they were sold out and replaced by the new colors. Every store I went into which sold crayons, I went to the stationary section and opened the boxes in search of the original 64. My son even ransacked a crayon section in a Toys R Us in the San Diego area and came up with a box of original 48. I wrote letters of protest. When I finally conceded to their changes, I even entered their contest to name the new colors.

What caused my consternation? Well, like many of you, I grew up with the original 64 and just couldn't conceive how one was to color the sun without using "sunshine yellow", or the flowers on the cornstalk without "cornflower blue." Having said that, however, I wasn't too concerned about "burnt sienna" because I never did like that color, anyway, but there were several others that I just wasn't going to be able to live without!

I was talking about all of this to some of the gals in the office one day. After my revelations, one of the ladies told me that she had just come back from a conference in San Francisco where she had the opportunity to meet with people who worked at Benny and Smith. She informed me that I wasn't alone in my displeasure with the changes - they felt the same way and were equally as emphatic about it. But while I was hung up on what to do without, they went about taking the existing colors and blending them in ways to come up with the ones which were to be deleted. What a concept!!!

I learned something from that. We often limit our growth because we don't look beyond the immediate. I was so busy fussing about the impending change to my colors that I wasn't thinking about how I could maintain what I had and even improve upon it. Change is difficult for lots of people, but with a positive outlook, we can get through just about anything. Change is good and not the end of the world. It can make things better and make us better for it. How does the saying go? "When Life gives you lemons, make lemonade."

You'll be happy to know that not only have I found a box of the original 64, but have since purchased the new colors and am even enjoying the neon stuff like "ninja turtle turquoise" and the silver swirl shades. I've also discovered that Crayola has a whole line of skin tone colors, which I thought was pretty cool. So if there are any other crayon-ites out there who share my passion for coloring, give me a holler and we can spend some quality time putting new shades on life!

Robyn

email:porter@elite.net

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