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Blog Entry 38 of 44 Welcome to The Retroplex
I'm usually in full-blown reminisce mode anyway, so why not make the rest of you poor saps suffer along with me, right?

Here, you'll find no shortage (well...unless I can't think of any new material) of meaningless but ultimately harmless bits of ephemera covering the past 20 or so years of pop culture, and my occasional interactions with it. Whether you're into the iconic or the ironic, sooner or later, I'll probably get around to it.
Watch, as the hilarity ensues! Or, if you prefer, gawk like a shocked passerby witnessing a horrible accident!

Blog Url: http://denver.yourhub.com/~TheRetroplex

The Trapper Keeper - a celebration

Contributed by: Jared Keller   on 8/27/2007

Ay, the life of a grad student. I've recently pieced my exploded skull back together after sending it flying with a couple of weeks' worth of hellish studies, and am taking a well-deserved month off from the rigors and punishment of balancing work, an actual life, and writing assignments apparently devised by Ben Stein's character from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

All of this school-related pain has cast me back to the heady days of 1985, when I first obtained that most treasured of schoolboy accoutrements: the Trapper Keeper. This was big-time stuff; no longer would I be mocked and savaged for my ragtag collection of three ring binders, PeeChee folders, and Mead spiral-bound notebooks. No sir, I wasn't a loser anymore. As I rooted through the Target bags, to see which alternately awesome and rad design my mom had chosen, I found the object of my search - buried beneath some paper towels. It bore on its cover a pastoral scene, featuring a brown and white mare, loping gracefully hither and yon. This was somewhat deflating.

Where was my airbrushed masterpiece of Ferraris at full V-8 snort, or even a wicked portrait of Duke, or Sgt. Slaughter, or Optimus Prime? Where, oh where was the Trapper Keeper art that would signify my top-tier standing in the elementary school echelons of coolness? Certainly, this respect wouldn't be garnered by a pony! Alas, there were no additional Trapper Keepers from which to select a new, more appropriately authoritative design scheme. As such, I was forced to carry the ponybook for the first couple of months of the new school year.

Still, the thing was undeniably cool. Granted, I ended up with a mass of drawings, comic books, and the occasional baseball cards filling the slots where the "homework" should have gone, but nevertheless, I and my 30-pound Trapper Keeper were happy and content - even if I couldn't find anything in it. Even with a pony on the front.

That's just how powerful a force for coolness was represented in the 'Keeper. Not a thing to be trifled with, kids.


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Showing 1-8 of 8 comments
Submitted By: Lisa Arata
posted on 10/8/2007 @ 3:43:58 PM
(Not Rated)
I just jammed every paper together and put my homework on top of the pile. I managed to get some of it done, even.
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Submitted By: Jamie VanEaton
posted on 10/2/2007 @ 7:54:23 PM
Rated Blog Entry
I loved my Trapper Keeper. The Peechee only allowed me some ink pen, coloring fun; but the Trapper Keeper sated the organized fiend in me.
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Submitted By: Barbara Neff
posted on 9/16/2007 @ 12:04:46 PM
Rated Blog Entry
My seventh grader carries something as hideous as a Trapper Keeper. He has more notes and papers inside that thing than most businesses keep in their file cabinets. He's proud of it, though!
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Submitted By: Brendan Leonard
posted on 9/4/2007 @ 4:49:24 PM
Rated Blog Entry
Yes!
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Submitted By: Karin Malchow
posted on 9/3/2007 @ 2:05:08 PM
Rated Blog Entry
For a while in the late-90s, my kids' elementary school supply list said "6 pocket folders, different colors, NO Trapper keepers." I wasn't even sure what that meant. One teacher even ripped out the side flaps if some kid dared bring that style. Must have been some kind of trapper backlash.
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Submitted By: Charmaine Robledo
posted on 8/31/2007 @ 12:17:36 PM
Rated Blog Entry
I had a Trapper Keeper all through elementary and middle school. One of the best inventions. Ever.
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Submitted By: Jared Keller
posted on 8/28/2007 @ 10:45:12 AM
(Not Rated)
D'OH! No, I've missed that one, though I can't seem to stop watching the Tom Cruise/Scientology episode, or the 9/11 conspiracy episode. I'll have to track down the Trapper Keeper one.
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Submitted By: Bill Boucher
posted on 8/28/2007 @ 9:03:53 AM
Rated Blog Entry
Ah, I remember it well. Have you perchance seen the South Park episode where Cartman's Trapper Keeper tries to take over the world Terminator style?
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Showing 1-8 of 8 comments
CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Jared Keller

Littleton

Jared Keller has posted 44 blog entries and 57 comments since joining on 12/1/2005. Jared Keller 's average blog rating is 5.
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