When I was in 4th grade, slap bracelets were insanely popular. I specifically remember my step dad laughing at the “fad” and becoming indignant. “They’re just a fad”, he said. “Be able to see past it.” “They’re here to stay. You don’t understand. They’ll be around.”
Anyway, my mom saw some investigative journalism story on Hard Copy about how some kids cut their wrists and ended up at the hospital because of slap bracelets. Well, being that my mom was the principal of a k-6 elementary school, she of course had to ban them. “I love kids and their safety!!!” The kids hated me. I still haven’t been able to see a slap bracelet (it does happen quite often) without thinking back to Heather Thomas telling me I was a nerd for wearing suspenders and sports goggles and that my mom was a b**** for banning slap bracelets.
I really was so naively happy back then.
Where do you see slap bracelets “quite often”?
Can you buy them somewhere in Chicago? At the Jewel, or the Osco (or some other Chicagoey place)?
I’ve seen them in several boutique stores. There’s one here in Oak Park. I saw one in a store in the Mall before a left for a trip, I’ve seen them on some hipsters recently. I also remember watching the “I love the 80’s or 90’s” Marathon on VHI and they talked about them. Some of the 5th graders at my school were whipping them out. This post was prompted because I saw an ask metafilter thread about them. So quite often is probably an exaggeration.
I remember slap-bracelets! I got a couple during our free street fair way back then. I had heard the kids were giving the different color of bracelets a certain meaning (and not an appropriate on) which caused them to be banned in some schools also. Like Heather Thomas could declare that the tiger-striped slap-bracelet means that your mom is a b**** and could have slapped it on your wrist. Just kidding. I bet you can still find slap-bracelets on eBay. I thought they were kind of neat myself, but I got bored of them pretty quickly.