By Barbara McAllister
Which one of the following is NOT an actual Crayola crayon color?
A. Macaroni and Cheese
B. Outer Space
C. Otcha Hotcha Chocolate
The answer is…
The correct answer is B (but I think it should be C!) Archaeologists may have discovered one of the earliest examples of a crayon, possibly used by people 10,000 years ago. The word is thought to have originally come from an old Latin word meaning chalk or clay, and was initially a stick of colored chalk or wax used for drawing. The familiar Crayola we know today is a trademark name for the crayons developed in the early 1900s by the Binney & Smith Co. Alice Binney was a former schoolteacher who came up with the name by adding “ola” to crayon. It stands for “oleaginous” for the oil base used to make them.
The original Crayola box contained eight basic colors and sold for a nickel. It has since expanded to hundreds of colors. Blue is the most popular color, but everybody has a favorite they like to hide from their brother or sister. Color names change with the times. Your grandparent’s yellow might have been called maize, but your parents had dandelion and you might be part of the banana mania generation. The new outer space looks a lot like black. Another generation had burnt orange but not atomic tangerine, inchworm or jazzberry jam.
A Yale University study found that the scent of Crayola crayons is one of the most recognizable smells for adults. Today Crayola makes enough crayons yearly to circle the world SIX times. Holy Crayola! That’s a lot of electric lime and tickle me pink.
