This is not my picture. My friend Travis took this. Last night, while talking to Travis on the phone, somehow these pencils came into the conversation.

We both went to elementary school together (where we met), at Coolidge Elementary in Oklahoma City. There were two vending machines near the school offices. For 25 cents, you could get two pencils, or a notebook. The pencils were football and baseball pencils.

Now when I was in elementary school, the Dallas cowboys were the ultimate team. Even though I was never a football fan, to slug the vending machine and get a Dallas Cowboys pencil was like getting GOLD.

As Travis and I talked about the pencils that everyone had, he said he had about 10 pencils, still in new condition, from those vending machines! I called bullshit, but I was proven wrong today when Travis took a picture of said pencils and sent me this picture.

Let's not forget, he's had these pencils since about 1974 or 1975, so about 35 years or so. Talk about saving stuff!

I wonder if anyone else ever had, or saw, or knew about these pencils.

That's cool


I went to Coolidge Elementary

in Livonia Mi

and I had a Miami Dolphins Pencil my Dad got me in Fl - around the early 70s

ernestsewell said:

I had those, almost forgot about those. They were cool.

I got some pencils for Christmas when I was about 8. They were from my uncle - my mom's brother. They were personalized.

They had my first name on them, and my mom's maiden name.

I don't think my Dad was mad, he couldn't stop laughing. He always thought mom's side of the family were hillbillies.

OMG!! I remember those. 1982-83 range, middle school. Man, I use try to get as many Minnesota Vikings pencils as possible.

Guilty of buying those...cool stuff.

My Cowboys pencil was used UP!!!

Oh those were the BOMB! I used to love those things. Course, I would always get the sucky ones like the Cleveland Browns or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The only thing cooler was the little mini football helmets!

Being a grown up sucks!

GottaLetitgo said:

YOU MADE AN APPEARANCE~!!!!!

Imago said:

I've been in hiding. Was waiting to see if anybody noticed. It's like when I was a kid and I would be playing hide and seek and the other kids would stop playing and not tell me and like it would be days later and I would come out of my hiding place, starving and sleep deprived, trying to figure out where the hell everyone went.

Stupid bastard kids!

Loved those football pencils though.

I remember those. Back in 3rd grade. Kids used to trade for Pittsburgh and Dallas.

They were the most popular at my school.

You could get like 3 Tampa Bays and a Cleveland for one Dallas or Pittsburgh. Maybe more for a Pittsburgh.

Anyone ever get "lucky" and get a teacher who handed out pencils with the teacher's name on them at xmas time?