Whatever happened to Trapper Keepers? I know it's not true, but it feels like when they stopped being useful to me they simply stopped being made. There are a lot of memories about those middle years of school, but the one constant were the various Trapper Keepers I owned. Each one was like a marker for that school year. In a way it stored all the memories and events for that year.
Like most kids I loved summer, if only for the fact that it meant I didn't have to go to school for three months. It was a way to break out of the structure of school and enjoy some freedom. At least from a kid's perspective that's how it is. When we're children we don't always realize the fact that three months out of school means that our parents had to sort out what to do with us that whole time. So when it came time for us to return to school there was a bit of celebration for parents. Finally we were a problem for someone else to deal with. Being the little nerd that I was, when it came time to go get school supplies I was usually so excited. I remember going to the store and looking at all the new folders and brightly colored pencils. There were lunch boxes with new designs that I didn't even know existed and once I saw I just had to have. It didn't matter how lame my lunch may have been, but I had to eat out of a Fall Guy lunch box. While looking through all the supplies I would try to imagine all the situations where I would get to use them. The pictures I would create with my colored pencils. The mistakes I would remove with my handy eraser. The idea of what I could do with them sometimes was better than what I actually did with them.
I wish I could tell you that it was a thoughtful process deciding which Trapper Keeper I would ultimately use for the year, but in most cases it came down to me grabbing what was the most visually appealing at the time. Sure there were several second guesses and in some cases I would literally drop what I was doing and run back to the stand to switch out what I picked with another. In elementary school we had music class for an hour. I'm not sure if they still do that anymore. I don't think it was every day, but it happened several times during the week. We would stop whatever we were doing, line up, and go the music room to spend an hour with Mrs. Aune. Her room was like magic. First off, it wasn't shaped like a normal room. It was oval and had levels built into it like a stadium so we could look down towards the center of the room where her piano was. On that piano she always had what I thought were the coolest toys. Throughout the room there were pictures of music. At the beginning of the school year we were told to bring in a folder. This would be our special folder. I'm not entirely sure what we actually put in it other than it was paper. Every year I had a hard time picking out that folder. It had to be special because she said it was special. Back then I still believed in things like a special folder that was good. Those folders weren't used every day. Most of the time they were stored away in a closet behind us. Only on special occasions did they get pulled out and passed out. It was those moments where I would just stare at my folder because at that age it was easy to mesmerize me with just a picture. Actually it's still easy to do that to me, but usually it's a different kind of picture now.
When I was picking out my folder or Trapper Keeper I would often wonder who it was that came up with the designs and pictures. Obviously they were aimed at children and meant to promote other products like whatever cartoon or television show that was popular at the time. Those folders were fine enough, but found myself drawn to the more abstract designs that were created by the mystical machine known as a computer. Sure those folders were mass-produced and there was a chance that another kid picked out the same design as you, but it seemed like those designs were unique. Or at least my combination of designs was unique to me. As children we sometimes allow inanimate objects define us. Actually I guess as adults we allow that as well. My Trapper Keeper was an expression of myself, even if someone else had actually created it. I carried it with me every day so it was an extension of me and my thoughts.
I'm not exactly sure when it happens for other kids or when it happened to me, but somewhere along the way I stopped putting forth as much effort into my school supplies. I became less concerned with form and more focused on functionality. Finding those folders with the unique designs was no longer important to me. A plain red, blue, or green folder served the same purpose. A Trapper Keeper was eventually replaced with a binder or the individual folders were just tossed into a backpack and pulled out as needed. That trend continued on through high school and into college. I wonder if that was because the work we were expected to do was more serious or were we allowing ourselves to become more jaded about school? The container was less important that the contents because the older we got, the more our school work started to consume us. Sometimes I would miss those designer folders that were stashed away for special use only. It reminded me of a time when I thought school was almost magical in the possibilities that it offered.
