Crayola Messes With My Childhood

After a lengthy and insightful conversation with a dear friend about coloring and crayons, I was provoked to go online and look up a listing of all the Crayola colors. 

For a blissful 20 minutes I happily relived my coloring past. (Including trying to solve the old philosophical chestnut:  what was really the difference between VioletBlue and BlueViolet?)  But as I looked further over the color names, I was chagrined to learn that Crayola has deemed it necessary over the years to rename some of the favorite colors from my and my daugter's past.  

ULTRA YELLOW is now Atomic Tangerine. A "pop" change that has neither the immediacy nor sense of "remarkable" that the original "ultra" has. And I'm sorry but YELLOW (ultra or otherwise) is not the same as TANGERINE.

COPPER was renamed Metallic. This doesn't even come close to capturing the gleaming russet sparkle of the original.

HOT MAGENTA and CHARTREUSE were *both* renamed Fluorescent, along with several other shades.  As none of them are remotely alike, it boggles the mind that they could all be called the same thing. (And Chartreuse is such a delicious word.... it would be tragic for children never to learn what that color is.)

As if these transformations weren't disappointing enough, another heartache awaited me. In 1990 the following colors were retired:

• LEMON YELLOW
• MAIZE (Another wonderful color term the origin of which children should know)
• BLUE GRAY
• RAW UMBER (The perfect shade for coloring tree branches)
• ORANGE RED
• ORANGE YELLOW
• VIOLETBLUE  (Ah... so there is no longer that mystery to ponder)

I am not a fan of change, especially when it has an impact on memories of my childhood.  I can only pray that the folks at GOLDEN BOOKS don't jump on the "improve and update" bandwagon.

Carry on.