The Way of All Flesh Crayons

I could have sworn that so-called “flesh” colored crayons were around during the entirety of my 60’s childhood, but that couldn’t have been the case.  As the U.S. Civil Rights movement heated up, Crayola Crayon Executives, huddled perhaps in their multi-hued nuclear bomb resistant shelters for an emergency meeting during the Cuban Missile Crisis, made the momentous decision in 1962 to change the designation of “flesh” to “peach.”  I was four.  I understood neither nuclear winter nor racism.  I recall stockpiles of “flesh” crayons passed between me and my largely white classmates for the rest of the decade until one day Flesh was extinct.

I didn’t miss it.  I was on to other pursuits by then.  A papier mache figure whose newspaper skin I never quite finished.  A decoupage plaque of a dove of peace that my art teacher pronounced clichéd.  A social studies project of screaming headlines pasted beside a naked Vietnamese girl running out of her skin.

To learn which colors have been retired or changed, click here.