![\"My](\"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/National-Crayon-Day-1200x834-e1617179242760.jpg\")
<\/a>My mouth waters just seeing a picture of crayons!<\/p><\/div>\n
I’m not kidding\u2014I’m so obsessed with those color sticks that I actually thought of changing my name to \u201cCrayon\u201d a few years ago, but debating doing it with a \u201cK,\u201d my favorite letter, making it \u201cKrayon.\u201d [Note: I should probably do it now<\/em> because of my real<\/em> name being maligned all the time these days, as in \u201cBagel Karen, and \u201cCentral Park Karen,\u201d etc. For a recent minute, someone tried to change the name that’s become the symbol for a bad<\/em> woman to \u201cSusan,\u201d but it didn’t take. I think the hard consonant (K) is more dramatic to the ones who keep it going.]<\/p>\n But let’s get back to the happier thought of celebrating crayons today, which I’m always first in line to do.<\/p>\n Just one tiny glimpse of my Crayon Room. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n I actually have a \u201cCrayon Room\u201d in my house. It’s really the guest room, but I’ve decorated it with giant crayon wall hangings and a couple of very large free-standing ones, as well, a crayon rug, boxes of them all over the place, and even a crayon mirror! (I thank so many of my thoughtful friends for many of those precious decorations over the years.) One time, when a family of friends was visiting LA, the parents asked if their two kids could spend the night with us, so of course, they stayed in that fun room. As the boy was pulling up the covers, he looked around the room confusedly and asked, \u201cWhose room is this?\u201d He was sure that I must have my own child someplace, because he couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that the crayon decor was just for me<\/em>.<\/p>\n I always ask for crayons at eateries that offer them with the children’s menu. I used to be embarrassed to do that, but I got over it. My old best kid friend, Ronnie, whom I used to always visit in Rhode Island, and who spent a couple of summers out here with Mr. X and me back in the day, was kind enough to always ask for extra crayons and menus to color on so I could join him in that fun. It would have been torture to sit there and watch others color while I pretended to be a grown-up!<\/p>\n My very primitive house that I drew on the paper tablecloth on my first official date with Mr. X a hundred years ago! (Our meals arrived, so I couldn’t add the flowers, tree, sun, sky, and grass that I usually do.) Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n Actually, Mr. X and my first official \u201cdate,\u201d (after a long flirtation and friendship,) was at a New York restaurant whose \u201chip\u201d factor included having crayons and drawing paper on the tables. I was ecstatic! First in just being in the Big Apple with him, of course, but then in discovering that I was allowed to color right on the tables without any of the dirty looks I got from doing so on the children’s menus in diners and the like. On that auspicious occasion, one of my creations was a very primitive version of my now-signature happy house scene, (with me in the window, waiting for Mr. X, as always,) and thought I took it back to my Brooklyn house with me when he went back to LA. I was sick when I couldn’t find it. But when I got back home myself a few weeks later, he surprised me by having snuck it away from me at the restaurant and…having it framed for me! It hung in his<\/em> bedroom for years until we moved in together and have displayed it proudly in our<\/em> bedroom ever since.<\/p>\n I’m happy with all<\/em> crayons, but there’s nothing better on earth than Crayola’s box of sixty-four. The original one! With all the colors before they were discontinued, changed, or rotated out. I don’t even particularly like the color yellow, nor lemons for that matter, but when I was discussing the demise of Crayola’s Lemon Yellow on my former TV show, I was shocked to find myself bawling my eyes out! On the air! It was like an old friend had left me. (Yes, my audience did<\/em> think my a bit nutty emotional monologue was a riot!)<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>