Back-to-school time is always a perfect time to get nostalgic about your own days in the classroom, but things have changed a lot since you were the one sitting behind the desk. From hand-operated (gasp!) pencil sharpeners to everyone’s favorite folders, scroll down to re-discover some of the school supplies you probably couldn’t live without.

Tavets via Instagram

Trapper Keepers helped you stay organized. But it was the outside design that stole the show. 

Jessica Lucia via Flickr

Scented markers made your papers smell delicious. Lucky for kids everywhere, they're still going strong and available anywhere school supplies are sold.

Gabby Cullen

Pencil sharpeners had to be operated by hand.

eBay

You put trolls on your pencils way before Poppy and Branch were cool. 

eBay

You kept your papers in the whimsical yet slightly psychedelic Lisa Frank folders. Buy this vintage gem at eBay

Amazon

You hoped Kissing Potion lip gloss really worked. You can still find it on Amazon!

Wikimedia Images via Pixabay

You loved your Walkman...and the mixed tapes your friends made for it! 

eBay

You loved when your teacher rewarded good grades with Scratch And Sniff Stickers on your test papers. 

Isriya Paireepairit via Flickr

You used a tape recorder and had to hit rewind...a lot.

Mac231 via Pixabay

Remember when all your information came from the Encyclopedia instead of Google or Alexa? 

Erol Ahmed via Unsplash

And in order to find exactly which Encylopedia you needed, there was the ever-handy card catalog. 

Wikimedia Commons

Learning to spell was fun with Speak & Spell. And then E.T. used one and sealed its fate as a classic '80s relic. 

saskboy via Flickr

Avoiding dysentery and watching out for thieves along the Oregon Trail was all part of the educational fun.

Christopher Sessums via Flickr

Overhead projectors with their erasable transparency sheets have long been retired to make way for projectors that connect to laptops and tablets.

Michael Coghlan via Flickr

Rainy day movies meant rolling the AV cart out and popping in a VHS for recess time. 

 

eBay

Bento boxes with Instagrammable food art have replaced plastic lunch boxes packed with fruit roll ups and gummy sharks (don't forget your matching Thermos!). 

Pixabay

Long before the magical cloud existed, these bad boys were all the storage you needed—as long as you didn’t lose them.

 

Ebay

The original fidget spinners! Your Tamagotchi wasn't exactly a classroom essential, but at recess, the first thing you did was feed your digital pet. 

 

—Sher Warkentin with Melissa Heckscher

Featured image: Vishwanatha Srinivasan via Pixabay

 

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