I loved to color as a child and was very particular about my color books. I wouldn’t share my color book with some of my friends because they didn’t stay in the lines. I always outlined everything before coloring the inside so it made it easier to stay in the lines. It drove me crazy if some one didn’t color the same way and they would be banned from my color book.
My Grandmother loved to color in my color books but she colored hair weird colors. The hair had to be normal colors to suit me, so grandmother was banned from my color books. Of course she was just ahead of her time with the hair colors.
My grandmother taught me to color intricate spaces. If I forgot my color book or it was completely colored she would give me round paper doilies or placemats to color. Not easy but I was still pretty particular about not getting outside the lines.
If she didn’t have any of the paper doilies, she would take a piece of paper and scribble a design on it. It was sometimes a large design or sometimes the spaces were small and would take an hour or two to color in all the abstract spaces in the design. (It kept me out of her hair for awhile.)
The paper doilies or the abstract scribbled designs were probably payback for not letting her color in my color book. It must have gotten her Irish dander up when her 3 year old granddaughter wouldn’t let her color in her color book.
I even loved to color in seventh and eighth grade. Then everyone thought you shouldn’t color anymore when you went into high school unless you were baby sitting and the kids let you color in their color book with them.
In high school I’d color in my sisters color book, and never knew if she figured it out. She never complained to mom about it so maybe she didn’t know.
Then I colored with my niece when she was little. It was fun to color again in my 30’s. My niece was very artistic even when she was 3 years old so she was fun to color with. And she could draw her own pictures for us to color.
A couple of oil painting classes in my 40’s were fun and a substitute, but not a good one, for coloring in a color book.
One year the business women’s club I belonged to donated time for the Red Cross at one of the churches. We babysit so mothers could donate blood. Everyone volunteered a couple of hours and it was fun.
Most of the kids were preschool so it was not hard to keep them entertained. A couple of the little girls wanted to color and there weren’t any color books. All they had were boxes of crayons and plain paper.
I grabbed the paper and the boxes of crayons and drew abstract scribbles on the paper, like my grandmother did for me. Then I showed them how to color inside the shapes and turned them loose.
It worked like a charm and they were quiet and colored until their mothers came back. When new kids came in and saw what the kids were coloring on, they wanted one. Drawing abstract squiggle designs on the paper made the two hours go pretty fast for me too.
During my 50’s I don’t remember coloring at all and missed it a lot. So now in my 60’s I have discovered adult color books and love them. They are for stress relief and the smaller intricate designs are best because you have to focus on the picture and can’t think about anything else.
Yes, I still outline before coloring in a shape, but now the outline is on the inside and markers of various sizes make it easy to stay inside the lines. My husband gave me a book for my birthday that is greeting cards and envelopes that match, they have been fun to work on and send.
My BFF gave me a small travel book to color. She informed me that it was for a waiting room and not to color in it at home. But, awhile back I had the flu and spent 3 days in the recliner and got the little book and markers and colored in it.
My BFF fussed at me for coloring in it at home. I told her I was sick and was waiting to feel better; that made the bedroom and the recliner the waiting room, so it was okay to color in it that day. But I don’t think she agreed with my thinking on that one.
Why didn’t I think of this and invent the adult coloring books. We would have been set for life. To all the adults out there that loved to color when they were young; happy coloring, it is a lot of fun and is good for your blood pressure. To contact Sandy: [email protected]
