While everyone else was still stretching out plastic soda lid inserts to wear as bracelets, I started collecting rubber bracelets.

At first, I only had one. They were difficult to come upon and not many people wore them at that point. You better believe I snatched those bracelets up when I found them though!

They were inexpensive and brightly colored, and I didn’t have a lot of money at the time. My friends and I would twist them into shapes and weave two or three together. Before long, most of my friends were wearing the rubber bracelets I started out wearing.

By summer, I had not one or two…not three or four, but probably around 20-30 bracelets on my wrist. Actually, I can’t really say wrist, these rubber bracelets covered my arms from hand to elbow. With the hot summer sun out all the time, I naturally began to tan. It wasn’t until I saw my grandmother with a rubber bracelet on that I decided enough was enough.

But it was too late. By the time I had removed all the brightly colored bracelets, my arms had a severe farmer’s tan. I looked like a science experiment. Tan hands and upper arms with a white space of forearm in the middle.

I limit myself to one bracelet at a time now. Read the rest of this entry »