Monday, July 11, 2005
The secret language of arts and crafts
Apparently, children in the U.K. are using plastic braid to transmit secret messages such as "best brother" and "soul mate" to one another.
Back when I was in day camp the stuff was made out of leather, and if there were hidden messages to be constructed, I'm sure I didn't know what they were. I was quite good with it, though, and could do the complicated 8-strand twists with variations like splitting it into four strands for a loop and then bringing it back together. Of course, by that time I was a Counselor in Training and had to actually teach children how to do it, so I'm pretty sure a high level of expertise with leather braid was required.
I just think it's interesting to see that some of my childhood fascinations are still apparently fascinating to children (there's actually a whole aisle devoted to plastic braid at my local craft store), and also that the day camp is stressing a "healthy love of children," possibly due to an incident dating back to my days as a camper. Personally, I don't remember having any kind of love of children when I was a CIT; I just liked being able to ride horses and roller-skate for free (not to mention the excellent films, like Follow Me, Boys and Summer Magic, each of which I figure I've seen upwards of 14 times) in exchange for keeping the little boogers from killing each other. For all that, I think I was probably a pretty good CIT.
Back when I was in day camp the stuff was made out of leather, and if there were hidden messages to be constructed, I'm sure I didn't know what they were. I was quite good with it, though, and could do the complicated 8-strand twists with variations like splitting it into four strands for a loop and then bringing it back together. Of course, by that time I was a Counselor in Training and had to actually teach children how to do it, so I'm pretty sure a high level of expertise with leather braid was required.
I just think it's interesting to see that some of my childhood fascinations are still apparently fascinating to children (there's actually a whole aisle devoted to plastic braid at my local craft store), and also that the day camp is stressing a "healthy love of children," possibly due to an incident dating back to my days as a camper. Personally, I don't remember having any kind of love of children when I was a CIT; I just liked being able to ride horses and roller-skate for free (not to mention the excellent films, like Follow Me, Boys and Summer Magic, each of which I figure I've seen upwards of 14 times) in exchange for keeping the little boogers from killing each other. For all that, I think I was probably a pretty good CIT.
permalink posted by The Vintage Reader @ 9:52 PM 
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