Comments on: Epic Win: Super S

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:54:34 +0000

I do have a Stussy tattoo..not the “Syuper S”, but the full Stussy word..

Thank you Spring Break ‘94!!

By: Hillman

Hillman — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:22:13 +0000

Get the official “S” thing shirts for only $10 theSthing.com

By: Myself

Myself — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:05:39 +0000

Reporting from Panama (the country, not the city in FL).. yeah.. you were the coolest if you knew how to draw it

By: Ali

Ali — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 03:52:13 +0000

Just about everyone drew these at my elementary school in California (90-96), I had no idea it was so widespread. Awesome to find this, though, because I had googled it without any success for years, having forgotten how to draw them. Ha, when I was a substitute teacher at a Tennessee elementary school last year I saw a kid with one of the S’s on his backpack and I came thiiiis close to asking him to show me how to draw it, but I figured that would seem kind of weird…

By: From Hawaii

From Hawaii — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 10:29:58 +0000

Reporting in from Maui, Hawaii. These were very popular in the sixth grade. (1998)

By: Rosa

Rosa — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:33:09 +0000

Definately in Washington DC, it was so cool to do it.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:58:00 +0000

maybe its a collective memory we as a society have from the garden of eden and dont know it. And if one goes back through time, the symbol will be left all over places in pyramids and caves. The missing link to a greater state of understanding of the physical and metaphysical worldss!

By: Kristyn

Kristyn — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:49:43 +0000

Yep, we had those in Sydney, Australia during the 90’s. I remember seeing them in schools spread all over Sydney. I also remember doing the braid ones!

This is SO weird reading that they were everywhere. Where did it start? OMG.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:28:34 +0000

Germany here, we had them!

By: Melissa

Melissa — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 20:49:52 +0000

Wtf? How did it get to places like that? O_o

By: Melissa

Melissa — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 20:48:27 +0000

Georgia kid here. I learned this in middle school but everybody already knew it before I did–I’d just moved there. (And I’m pretty sure that people knew it back in my elementary school in Arkansas, too.)

By: Megan

Megan — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:31:19 +0000

OH MAN. I thought this was just something my local school started! And this was in Japan! Not exactly in a Japanese high school, but more like on the U.S. military bases with all the American kids. I always wondered what the heck it was, thinking it was for Superman. but Superman’s “S” symbol doesn’t look like that. and no one would tell me what the heck it actually stood for. So I thought that maybe they got it from some American TV show or product or something back on the U.S. motherland. well now that I live here in the U.S., turns out that people are still as clueless as ever about the mysterious “S”! And I never knew it would be so widespread either, and equally clueless!

btw, there’s even a facebook group for this! just find it on Facebook. the group is called:

That “S” thing we all drew in elementary school.

By: Bex

Bex — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:03:27 +0000

PHILLAYYYYY did ‘em here.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:48:56 +0000

We had those at my school in sydney australia in the early 90’s. i have never been able to find out any info on them.

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 06:17:15 +0000

New York too – although my school name and town started with “S”, so I always thought it was just within our school system. I had no idea it was so widespread!

By: Robin

Robin — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 03:14:14 +0000

This spread as far as Newfoundland, although we called them “Smiles” because that was about the only word you saw the special “S” starting.

By: Warcorwarrencorr

Warcorwarrencorr — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:34:02 +0000

Yeah we drew this too, back in the 90’s. I’m from Cape town South africa. How the hell did this thing spread so much?

By: Velaz

Velaz — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:06:54 +0000

Germany hear. know this from the 90s. But ask your parents for this.

Then ask your grandparents…

By: Maggie

Maggie — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:00:56 +0000

It was a trend in Massachusetts, too.

I remember not only making these with my friends, but making them travel all the way down my paper, drawing a little tongue at the top end, and coloring it green to make it look like a snake. Ahh memories.

By: Erin

Erin — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 23:53:08 +0000

I remember in Middle School my English teacher flipped out on a student who had used it for the capital ’s’ on a project we had to do and sent him to the princepal because it was a gang symbol. She had me convinced until I just learn that even people in Australia and Sweden drew the symbol too. Crazy.

By: Becky

Becky — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:33:15 +0000

Im in the UK and even most of us knew how to draw these!

By: Kristy

Kristy — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:26:05 +0000

Michigan. Its crazy how things like that are happening everywhere when you think its just you. lol

By: poop

poop — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:36:39 +0000

i thought this was only just a thing some kid at my school came up with and everyone began scribbling as well. very weird that this was infact some kind of world wide phenomenon. i was often disappointed that only the letter ’s’ was immortalized as such, since i wanted to write my name all lovely and stylized, but alas, it only has one ’s.’

By: gilldo

gilldo — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:01:56 +0000

Yeh I’m from Scotland we drew them here too!!!!

By: Nero

Nero — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:29:52 +0000

(hello compatriote, j’aurai jamais pensé voir un truc que je connais sur ce blog)

WTF!
I though it was a local thing…and I’m from a small french village.

By: Stickers

Stickers — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:25:24 +0000

Maine here.

Weirdly enough, we had it here, too!

By: weezle

weezle — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 22:53:42 +0000

HAHAHA, I was in a board meeting the other day drawing these all over my notepad & my colleague was having a chuckle about it…that’s gold. I grew up in a country town in Far North NSW in Oz, so it’s not just a US thing lol

By: Audrey

Audrey — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:33:21 +0000

Florida ringing in.

I had these in the mid-90’s and now my little sister comes home with them all over her papers. this trend will never die.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:40:18 +0000

We did them in Arkansas… did anyone else draw one big S the write the sorry so short on the lines next to the S..

By: Joachim

Joachim — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:03:59 +0000

I thought it was just a local thing too. Had it here in Hawaii in the late 1990s in elementary school.

By: JT

JT — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:09:09 +0000

not all skinheads are/were neo-nazis. there was a whole group of them called ’s.h.a.r.p – skinheads against racial predjudice’. unless you meant just the neo-nazi ones used it.

but yeh, English girl here can’t believe the thing is so widespread and yet was so pointless!! i can’t remember how we even came to be doodling them lol

By: nams

nams — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:30:57 +0000

yup, we were drawing them in singapore too!

By: Cassie

Cassie — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:01:38 +0000

Tennessee. It was also popular in my middle/elementary school.

By: Jane

Jane — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:03:20 +0000

I come from a small secluded town in the French alps and we even had it over there…

By: Kat

Kat — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:13:11 +0000

Whoa, I had these back in the 90’s, called them “Spartan’s S” because my school mascot was a Spartan.

By: Mibelle816

Mibelle816 — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 01:27:12 +0000

Yeah, I grew up in michigan (Elementary school from about 92-98), and it was pretty much always associated with Michigan state here. Also, we started with three lines on top and three lines below it, instead of dots.

By: mrpk711

mrpk711 — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:49:31 +0000

Saipan, MP 96950 reporting in.. wow i remember drawing this and feeling like such a badass in the sixth grade.. nice!

By: Adam

Adam — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:51:21 +0000

I always thought that there was an alphabet of it. I was always the outcast in school because I had no idea how to draw it and I STILL don’t.

By: catsoup

catsoup — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:41:00 +0000

Kids still do this! I worked in public schools from 2004-08. Kids drew these all the time.

By: Chopperman

Chopperman — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:47:04 +0000

I was born in 1991, and we kids were still drawing these all the time, even in middle school. I feel better, though, knowing that it isn’t just me that doesn’t know what the heck it means.

I agree with your earlier post– the last line has to look like it connects! I don’t know what it’s supposed to do, but it doesn’t do it unless the back connects.

By: nolan

nolan — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:13:18 +0000

we had em at school here in the Seattle area as well…where did they originate? was it shown on tv or something? how are they everywhere??

By: Dreolin

Dreolin — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:35:15 +0000

Had them in Virginia in the 70’s and 80’s also. I work in a library, I should see if our Reference people can track down the origin!

By: Black Blaze

Black Blaze — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:29:23 +0000

I remember learning how to do that in the second grade! Sometimes I still make them out of the “s” in my first name.

By: crops

crops — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:41:13 +0000

I remember a friends’ older brother teaching me the steps to draw it. when I was 6 or 7. We used draw these a lot in elementary school in the mid-90s. I too thought it was a local phenomenon, in central Canada where I lives.

By: Alicia

Alicia — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:22:35 +0000

I used to draw these in jr. high – 1989ish. Now, my 3rd grade students are drawing them!!! It never ends!

By: horse

horse — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:25:59 +0000

where the hell did these come from?

I remember people drawing these in 94 – 95 (in the UK).

Be inter4esting to know how old this really is and who did it first.

By: Leon

Leon — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:40:20 +0000

Ohio, and we have it too, even in this boring old state.

By: AJ

AJ — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:09:06 +0000

Arizona! I could’ve sworn it was a local thing. Moreover, a thing that was almost exclusively the property of the cool kids that lived on the “S”outh”S”ide of town in the “S”unny”S”ide school district. LOL

I find it quite amazing that it was an international phenomenon back then.

By: Kelly Ann

Kelly Ann — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:24:30 +0000

I still draw these on a regular basis! Around Delaware, we call them Chinese S’s… No clue why… But the rawk!

I remember being in the after school program and when we went outside, kids would bring scissors to carve the S’s into trees. <3

By: leigh

leigh — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:28:34 +0000

We used to draw them ALL THE TIME in elementary school. In the school district where I teach now, they don’t allow students to draw them. From what I gather, it’s part of a Mexican gang symbol or something.