You won’t believe this, denizens. I don’t believe it.
Mead still makes Trapper Keepers!
Actually, that site doesn’t really provide a nice view of the modern Trapper Keeper. Here, have this Amazon.com view.
Looks like they’re now made with solid-color fabric covers, with a sturdy metal snap to hold them shut and sturdy metal rings that I’m sure clack shut with percussive reassurance.
How dull.
Nope. I want my Trapper Keeper made completely of plastic and cardboard. I want a Velcro closure and a little plastic tab that, when you pull on it, makes the plastic rings slide open and shut in absolute silence. I want the flap to be held on with thin, destined-to-become-more-brittle-with-age plastic piping that tatters and rips throughout the year, until by the time summer vacation arrives, those tattered edges have several times snagged your clothing and sliced through the skin on your palms like paper cuts on steroids. I want special folders in bright primary colors, branded with the Trapper Keeper logo. And I want the outside decorated with something inspiring. Like a tiger. I want a Tiger Trapper Keeper.
I actually did have this exact Trapper Keeper one year. One year is a pretty good record for a Trapper Keeper. Then again, that was the joy (for kids, but a money-sucking pain for parents, I’m sure) of the Trapper Keeper: You got to get a new one each year. One that would properly express your ever-evolving personality through pictures, designs, and colors. Either that or show everyone that you were late to the Back-to-School sale and all they had left was the one with the prancing horse in a meadow.
Which is fine if you like horses. Otherwise, you end up suffering from an extreme case of Trapper Keeper envy for an entire year. Not that I know anything about such things.
[Loba Tangent: What the hell did I know about horses? I’d never even ridden a horse at that point!! Well, except for that glue-factory candidate they dragged out at the local elementary school’s summer carnival for kids to climb onto and clatter about in a parking lot for 10 minutes. That poor little beast sure wasn’t going to take you prancing through a verdant meadow.]
Actually, likethe80s has quite a few photos of Trapper Keepers, including this infamous horse one. They even apparently did research for their post.
Pfft. Research. Really, it’s all about the photos they have. Nice walk down memory lane…although I’m not going to lie, denizens…I’m a little concerned by the hoarding nature of the person holding onto all these Trapper Keepers. Let them go! Let that horse finally run free!!
Oh, and if you scroll to the bottom of their page, you’ll find a link to their post on Mac Tonight, who I recently blathered on about here a couple weeks ago. Their post is nice and all, but they don’t have what I have: This photo, taken for me by an awesome ImagiFriendTM who was kind enough to indulge my recent mooning over Mac.
Heh. I see what I did there.
