Oh, Mollie: How The Times Have Changed

Back when I was a child Crayola was a lot different. While there still existed a plethora of colors, the naming convention had not yet taken on a life of its own. Sure, some colors had creative names but it really hadn't gotten away from them yet. I can recall when Orange became Jack-o-lantern, for example. But gray was just Gray. There was a color bias, you see. The blander the color, the less likely it was to be called anything other than some variation of what it actually was. Brown was brown. Black was black. White was white. Light gray was simply Light Gray -- now it's something like, Baby Seal.

Baby Seal!

Which I guess is better than Gray 1, Gray 2, Gray 3 and so on, but still. So out of control has the naming of crayons become that sometimes I don't even know what color children are referring to when they're drawing anymore. It does however present the opportunity for a magical experience, if you close your eyes and simply try to imagine... "My rainbow is made of Fuzzy Wuzzy, Magic Potion, Laser Lemon, Inchworm, Robin's Egg, Lapis Lazuli, and Cyber Grape!"

Oh, really?

My favorite is obviously Laser Lemon.

Those are actual names of colors right now. Though with the addition of new colors, older colors have been renamed or retired. Prussian Blue is now Midnight Blue and Mulberry is gone the way of the Dodo bird. You probably don't know what that is, come to think of it. Or what that means, for that matter. The Dodo was a flightless bird. Not like a penguin though as it couldn't swim either, which is probably why it no longer exists. It looked something like this though:

I cannot fly or swim.

I also remember having to endlessly experiment with less than 80 colors (can you believe it?) to try to bring my imagination to life. Sadly, to my dismay, the colors I created were never repeatable because at that age there was no scientific process involved whatsoever. No measurements taken, no names written down for future reference. Now there are 133 colors! You don't even need to mix them anymore.You have no idea how good you have it.

I'm surprised they haven't just started naming them after Pokemon yet. Or maybe they have? Pikachu Yellow. Caterpie Green. Wobbuffet Blue? No? Maybe? Aw, c'mon.