Submitted by Lynne T

Dots and Lines or Dots and Boxes was a fun way to waste time during bus rides, long classes, or anytime you had a willing opponent, paper and a writing utensil. There were a lot of fun strategies for trapping your opponent, although most people just assumed it was luck of the string. Did you know there’s a way to turn this into a gambling game by adding coins to the squares?

Submitted by Sarah C

Who could forget the naked floaty pens that it seems everyone’s Dad owned at one point or another. We’d sneak them so we could see the lady’s dress come off and have a laugh. Other than that, Floaty pens were also a great way to commemorate family trips or to show off to your friends at school where you’d traveled that summer.

Submitted by Chantal H

Everybody had their secrets and everybody loved to share. We all had techniques for passing notes, like the stash slot in the back of the calculator, paper footballs, inside the Bic pen, etc.

Submitted by Mel

Epic love letters and gossip notes were just a few of the creations made possible by Gel Pens. Does anyone else have memories of getting in trouble for using these on papers, exams, etc.? Or getting them taken away for arguing over who gets to use them?
Some of us kept using them as we got older and the results are beautiful:

Submitted and written by Kacie H

Who doesn’t remember making this fortune telling game out of a sheet of paper? After folding the paper, you decorate the outside squares with colors, then the inside flaps with numbers or words. Open the innermost flaps and write the fortunes on each flap. Then your friend chooses one of the four colors. You spell that color out, while moving the fortune teller in and out. Then your friend chooses one of the numbers that is showing. You move the fortune teller in and out the number of times according to the number they chose. When you finish, your friend chooses one of the four visible numbers, and you open the flap under that number to read their fortune.

It was especially useful for finding out which boy in your 6th grade class you were going to marry – and the friend who made it was always nice enough to put a couple nerds in there.