Collecting Stickers

 One of the things that I miss about childhood, among so many other things, is collecting stickers.  That was such great fun when I was a kid.  And one of the things that was so great about it is that everyone did it and it was a wonderful way to be included.  After all, when we're kids, being included is very important. Not that it isn't important as an adult, but I feel like it's different for children. In school, getting a sticker was often an important prize given away.  And usually, it was a scratch and sniff sticker.  The main ones I remember were round shaped and came in multiple scents.  One was grape and one was popcorn.  Those were my favorite two.

Having a sticker book was also something that most every child had.  After all, you had to have a place to put your stickers. I had many of them throughout the years.  And I will bet you that I still have many of them out in a box somewhere.  We would often get together as kids and trade stickers.  There were different levels of importance for stickers.  If you had a sticker that someone wanted, you then held all of the cards and could get multiple stickers in exchange.  I remember that there was a sticker of Fifi the lamb from Hello Kitty that was very rare, and we all wanted it.  Whoever was in possession could get just about any other sticker he/she wanted.  And did.  

Stickers were also a staple as a birthday gift.  And there were all kinds.  Remember puffy stickers?  And then scratch and sniff?  I also remember there being stickers you could color. They were often themed with whatever toys were popular that week and came with special crayons designed specifically to color the stickers.  It was always great fun to open up the birthday gift and see stickers there.  We used to go to the Hallmark store in the mall to buy stickers.  They would have kiosks throughout the store, those circular metal racks that would spin, that held packets of stickers.  They often came in sets of 2 to 4 pages.  The pages were not always the same in the pack either but even if they were, it made for good trading.  The motherload of stickers were at the back of the store.  There was a section of the back wall in Hallmark that was all things stickers. What joy it was to thumb through the different sections and find just the right pack of stickers to buy.  Those were good times.

I think I need to find my stickers again and see what condition they're in.  Who knows?  I may take up the hobby again.  It brings me joy so why not?  It's the little things!