i'm wearing silly bandz.

if you have kids (or nieces or nephews) then you already know about the craze behind silly bandz. every other year a new concept emerges that sends kids and their parents into a frenzy. for us, in the 80s, it was jelly bracelets, stickers, garbage pail kids and slap bracelets. there's probably more to add to that list but that's what comes to mind. when i was in high school i worked at a party store and the kid craze was pogs. remember those? never quite got the drift of how those worked but the kids thought they were pretty hot.

so what are silly bandz? colorful rubber bracelets that take and keep the shape of almost anything you can think of. stars, guitars, cupcakes, baseballs, dollar signs, letters, animals, cowboy hats, hearts. you name it, they got it. they call them fashion accessories which i guess they are to some. but for others they're just another trading item and a race to see who can collect the most and the coolest.

well i visited that same party store where i used to work yesterday and their entire front counter was covered with silly bandz. i already knew about them because my niece and nephew have about a 100. each! we went out to eat and my nephew dumps them all on the table. the 20-something year old waitress was so impressed she ended up trading a couple with him.

my niece warned that there are real ones - silly bandz - and then there are the fake ones - silly bandz' competitors. silly bandz were the first to come out so those are the most desirable. and like any other major fad, the schools eventually banned them. oh how history repeats itself.

if you take away nothing else from this post, take away this: if you have an invention that sounds stupid to most people - do it! especially if it involves kids. the trends that catch on are unbelievable.

anywho: i was presented with two yesterday. a car and a dog:

i think i need to step my silly bandz game up, though, and grab a few more cooler ones. the kids would agree.

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