stars...

We had so many methods of Pritt CPR! The old lick your finger then tap the top of the glue, like a sort of primitive chest thump, or there was the running it under warm water trick, just for a second, to try to get the stickiness going again. Usually it just made a white watery mess, but we tried so hard! I really miss those days of hope and optimism in the face of resolute un-glueyness. Instead of trying to find another Pritt stick or a different sort of glue, at the age of about 6 or 7 I always tried really hard to save every last bit of Pritt available to me. It's a pity, really, that this sort of thing hasn't made me into an avid recycling adult (I do try, but I can't physically ride a bike for some reason, and that's always slightly turned me against environmentalist campaigns in general. But that's another story). 

I was always a Pritt Stick rather than a Copydex kind of girl. While some of my classmates huddled in corners inhaling the fishy fumes from the liquid glue pots, I was part of a cooler gang, the underground who shunned drugs for true art. We were pioneers of the form, pushing the boundaries of what you could do with solid glue. Our finest hour? When we made Pritt Stick spider webs. Here's how you do it:

Get some glue on your index finger and thumb and tap them against each other until strands of glue form between the two. Then carefully stretch this strand over the hollow of the black twisty bit at the bottom of the Pritt Stick, so it attaches to each side of the ring. Continue doing this at different angles until it makes a sort of web. Wait for it to dry on a windowsill and then peel it off later, and you have a perfectly round little spider web. It never gets old!

Our teachers hated us doing this. I think they used the word "disgusting" - I have no idea why, we always washed our hands - and said it was a waste of glue. Maybe this is what spurred us on to fight so hard for the dregs of our dying tools. Pritt Sticks have been my friends for years, sad as that might sound, but I'd totally forgotten all about them until I started my scrapbook tonight. It just brought it all flooding back. So many happy memories!

Basically, I fucking love Pritt Stick.