15 Things Found in Every ’70s School Desk
If you opened a 1970s school desk, you'd find a mix of chaos, charm, and childhood—and maybe a petrified sandwich.
- Sophia Zapanta
- 5 min read
Before tablets and styluses, there were Trapper Keepers and chewed pencils. The average ’70s school desk was basically a time capsule stuffed with odd treasures and school-day survival tools. Here are 15 things that every kid back then had tucked away—some useful, some gross, all iconic.
1. Crusty Glue Bottles with the Orange Twist Cap
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Elmer’s glue was a rite of passage, and the bottle cap always had dried gunk around it. Kids used the glue for projects, pranks, and occasionally as fake skin once it dried. That crust never came off, no matter how hard you twisted. It was more glue sculpture than a school supply.
2. A Worn-Out Pencil with Bite Marks
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Somehow, every pencil ended up looking like a squirrel had attacked it. Kids chewed them during tests, daydreams, and boring lectures. The erasers were either rock-hard or completely gone. If the pencil had a working eraser, it was basically a school flex.
3. Trapper Keeper or Its Cheaper Cousin
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If you had a real Trapper Keeper, you were royalty. The cheaper versions still did the job without the flashy cover art or velcro. Inside, there were doodles, crumpled assignments, and maybe a note from a crush. That folder was a middle schooler’s entire personality.
4. Notebook Paper with Ragged Edges
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Half of it was ripped from spiral notebooks, still hanging on with stubborn little paper curls. The lines were always faded, and there was usually one mystery stain per sheet. Pages were folded, crumpled, and sometimes shared like currency. No one ever had enough clean sheets.
5. A Secret Candy Stash
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Smarties, Jolly Ranchers, or those chalky Valentine hearts—every desk had at least one questionable snack. You weren’t supposed to eat in class, but kids became candy ninjas. Some were half-melted and stuck to the bottom of the drawer. But hey, sugar is sugar.
6. Dried-Out Markers in Every Color but Black
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The caps were missing, and the red one always smelled weirdly sweet. You had to test five markers just to find one that still worked. Even then, it barely made it through a single drawing. No kid ever threw them out—they were part of the desk ecosystem.
7. Crumpled Permission Slips (Never Signed)
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Field trip forms lived in the bottom of desks like endangered species. Kids always “forgot” to give them to their parents until morning. Some slips had food stains, some were half-torn, but all were technically due last week. Teachers had to pry them out like fossils.
8. A Random Button or Loose Screw
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Nobody knew where it came from or what it was for. A jacket? A chair? A mechanical mystery? It lived in the corner of the desk, silently collecting dust and suspicion.
9. A Slam Book or Burn Book Lite
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This was pre-social media gossip in paper form. Kids would pass notebooks around with questions like “Who’s the cutest?” or “Biggest class clown?” It was all giggles until someone saw what was written about them. Then, suddenly, the classroom turned into a courtroom.
10. Tissues So Old They Were Basically Sandpaper
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At least one balled-up tissue had fossil status. Some desks had a mini box of tissues brought from home on the first day—and untouched ever since. When used, they crumbled like ancient scrolls. Great for emergencies, terrible for actual noses.
11. A Classic Wooden Ruler (With Doodles)
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The ruler was for measuring, yes, but it was mostly used to whack friends or pretend it was a sword. It had tiny drawings etched into it—peace signs, initials, smiley faces. Teachers always confiscated them during ruler fights, but somehow, another always appeared.
12. Those Pink Erasers That Smelled Like Victory
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They didn’t actually erase much. They just kind of smudged everything into a pink cloud of regret, but they smelled great and were fun to carve names into. By mid-year, they were either missing or chewed to oblivion.
13. A Class Photo Tucked Between Books
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Usually wrinkled and covered in doodles, the annual class photo lived between a spelling book and a social studies folder. Faces were circled, hearts were drawn, and enemies were crossed out. It was part memory, part vent session. It’s always good for a mid-lesson laugh.
14. A Half-Eaten PB&J or Funky Banana
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Forgotten lunch items were like science experiments. The peanut butter turned to concrete. Bananas went black and soupy, and somehow, no one ever learned not to leave food in there.
15. A Love Note or Dramatic Poem
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The notes were written in pencil, folded like origami, and full of feelings. Sometimes, they were a simple “Do you like me? Circle yes or no.” Other times, they were a 12-line poem about heartbreak in the 6th grade. Either way, they lived under books like a secret treasure.