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Twitter Users Are Posting Things We Haven’t Thought About Since Elementary School, But Will Instantly Remember (30 Pics)
There’s something about school memories that makes them so vivid and long-lasting, it feels like they happened yesterday. The classic ones like leaving home wearing slippers or failing a math exam usually come back in a sweaty nightmare. Miscellaneous memories like stealing a scented marker from your classmate arrive with a flashback. More emotional ones like an auntie picking you up all worn-out after another day at school can be triggered by a sharp valerian scent that reminds you of her.
But the most peculiar thing about these experiences is that they’re both too specific and too weird to digest. That’s why, when Twitter users started sharing their personal flashbacks from elementary school, people came to the conclusion that we all lived in the same childhood.
Pandas, if any of the posts below ring a bell to you, don’t forget to share your personal take on elementary school in the comments. And after you’re done reading this one, keep going down memory lane with some more school nostalgia here and here.
Image credits: melmadara
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Typically, our earliest memories begin to form at around the time we’re 2 or 3. From this time on, kids learn how to express their inner emotions and make a coherent sentence. However, there are some dark spots in our memory when it comes to the age of kindergarten or elementary school. Scientists believe that childhood amnesia is to blame.
As soon as you become an adult, it becomes virtually impossible to retrieve early episodic memories. It seems quite paradoxical because the human ability to retrieve childhood memories shouldn’t deteriorate with time if the brain is functioning well and one could be described as healthy.
This is still to this day my favorite toy. It's a shame I can't find them anywhere now...
Modern theorists explain that the key to forgetting lies in the early development of the brain itself, because infants are able to recall information for weeks or even months. The amnesia of early events occurs suddenly over a period of two years, and the younger you are, the more likely you’ll forget things from early days. However, the tendency to forget slows down with age.
With every single reminiscence, we make a repetition in our brain that allows us to keep the episode longer in our memory banks. Walking down memory lane every now and then turns out to be an excellent way to keep the precious moments locked in our brains!
so nostalgic. i remember in 2nd grade, my teacher would use that to show metamorphosis.
In fourth and fifth grade, my music teacher used it to show us the song lyrics we needed to learn :3
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More vivid is the sound of that one teacher with all the bracelets as they hit the hard plastic when she wrote on a projector.
Unfortunately, you're right. Our school can't afford smartboards so we're stuck with these.
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We had a teacher who everyone suspected wore a toupee but no one could prove it. One day, he was leaning over to fix the projector and I suppose a few hairs got caught on the overhead part. In any case, he walked away from it. It hung there for a few seconds, then landed with a hairy little splat onto the projector and there it sat, magnified 10X. The room was dead silent. He finally turned around, went "GUH!!!", grabbed it and ran out of the room. I've honestly never seen an entire classroom laugh so hard since then!
Oh noooo! Poor guy! Kids can be cruel, but that was funny!
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I got so excited when I was asked to go fill in the right answer! Would have a chip on my shoulder for the rest of the day!
'Chip on your shoulder' must mean something different in your country - in the UK it means having a grudge or grievance.
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Nostalgic, my a**. At my school, the teachers are happy if they HAVE got a working one of these.
This was always a nightmare trying to keep up with the teacher to get everything written down before she erased it all and moved on to the next part of the lesson. Or you were mortally embarrassed when you were forced to raise your hand to ask her to wait so you could catch up so most of the time you just let her erase everything and hope you got enough of it to pass the test it was going to be on!
i know this guy me and my friends would always dare each other to go up there when the teacher wasn't in the room and make shadow puppets.
What is this about? I never did this and I never saw it as a child in any school I attended in the U.K. in the 80's.
Looks like you’ll be living on a deserted island for the rest of your life then
We used to play with a parachute in elementary PE. Everyone grabs an edge, throws it up & runs under. It's probably illegal now, since we did bump into each other, but so fun!
I LOVED jump roping!! Double Dutch baby!! The one thing I was good at in school..... :D
Note: this post originally had 83 images. It’s been shortened to the top 31 images based on user votes.
This post makes me feel really old. Like farting cobwebs old! Only a few of these things were from my childhood and the rest is from my son's childhood LOL
You feel old....most of these were after my time. For me it was mimeographs (sniffing), carbon paper and typewriters....
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what about slap bracelets? I had those instead of those bracelet things, that were mentioned twice, btw...
Between gigs, I've done some elementary school subbing, and then you get to relive a bunch of it. But, much as I love the kids, you realize as an adult that there's a distinct smell of a bunch of kids together in a room, particularly after recess. And when some kid is being really obnoxious, you might realize how obnoxious you used to be, b/c you were that kid sometimes.
No RL Stine books or Scary Stories to Read in the Dark? Our librarian had wait lists for those
We need a whole other list. Nancy Drew, Cherry Ames, The Black Stallion........Our favorite books and series
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Noticed one thing not on the list (and this was more of a girl thing obviously) does anyone remember the safety pins with all the beads on them? Or the barretts with the ribbon braided on them?
friendship pins. We used to put them on the bottom lace of our shoes.
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A lot of these are past my time, but I do remember a lot of them were around from 1974-1983, and then came high school... I was always so mad that I didn't get a proper lunchbox with a Thermos (I wanted the yellow Peanuts one) and had to use a paper bag, and buy milk in the cafeteria.
Those plastic lunch boxes with the Thermos in the lid and the big sticker on the front were the S**T!
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I can still smell the chalk dust that used to permeate might schools growing up.
I started first grade in 1958. Most of this stuff is well after my time.
Ahh, the halcyon days of talking a girl into consenting to digital sex, then running around and telling all your friend to, "smell my finger, dude!"
I can't relate to this list like I can the other one. I never went to school so......
This post made me finally remember the title of a YA novel series I read back in my teen years: "Max on Earth" by Marilyn Kaye, followed by "Max in Love" and "Max on Fire". I had no idea there were three more books in the series.
This post makes me feel really old. Like farting cobwebs old! Only a few of these things were from my childhood and the rest is from my son's childhood LOL
You feel old....most of these were after my time. For me it was mimeographs (sniffing), carbon paper and typewriters....
Load More Replies... what about slap bracelets? I had those instead of those bracelet things, that were mentioned twice, btw...
Between gigs, I've done some elementary school subbing, and then you get to relive a bunch of it. But, much as I love the kids, you realize as an adult that there's a distinct smell of a bunch of kids together in a room, particularly after recess. And when some kid is being really obnoxious, you might realize how obnoxious you used to be, b/c you were that kid sometimes.
No RL Stine books or Scary Stories to Read in the Dark? Our librarian had wait lists for those
We need a whole other list. Nancy Drew, Cherry Ames, The Black Stallion........Our favorite books and series
Load More Replies... Noticed one thing not on the list (and this was more of a girl thing obviously) does anyone remember the safety pins with all the beads on them? Or the barretts with the ribbon braided on them?
friendship pins. We used to put them on the bottom lace of our shoes.
Load More Replies... A lot of these are past my time, but I do remember a lot of them were around from 1974-1983, and then came high school... I was always so mad that I didn't get a proper lunchbox with a Thermos (I wanted the yellow Peanuts one) and had to use a paper bag, and buy milk in the cafeteria.
Those plastic lunch boxes with the Thermos in the lid and the big sticker on the front were the S**T!
Load More Replies... I can still smell the chalk dust that used to permeate might schools growing up.
I started first grade in 1958. Most of this stuff is well after my time.
Ahh, the halcyon days of talking a girl into consenting to digital sex, then running around and telling all your friend to, "smell my finger, dude!"
I can't relate to this list like I can the other one. I never went to school so......
This post made me finally remember the title of a YA novel series I read back in my teen years: "Max on Earth" by Marilyn Kaye, followed by "Max in Love" and "Max on Fire". I had no idea there were three more books in the series.
