Flair Fi Fo Fum

Sometimes I buy things at estate sales just because of the graphics on a package or because they trigger a particular memory. These pens had both.

I considered the transition from Crayons to markers a move toward being an adult.  As much as I loved my box of 64 with its built in sharpener, after about 5th grade, they felt childish.

In contrast, Flair offered a mere 10 marker colors (and one of them was black).  But there was a sense of permanence when the marker touched your paper.  Along with that, you felt a sense of responsibility.  You had to keep moving when you used a marker or the ink would continue to bleed out, making a soggy spot on your page.  This fostered the feeling that you had to be mature to use markers.  

Having a sister 4 years older than me, she had these way before my mom felt I could handle them.  So naturally I sneaked into them.  All went well until she noticed the tips had been blunted.  Hey, I liked to make dots.

As with Crayons, one other problem with markers (and even today with printer ink)  is some colors are just more utilized than others resulting in a handful of dry markers and full markers of colors you never use. Pink was one I particularly disliked, not because I was guy and pink was "for girls", it just didn't look like any color in nature.  I also felt the blue lacked in that it wasn't quite the color of the sky.  The brown made a decent tree trunk color and the green leaves, so I spent a lot of time drawing trees.

Of course, the biggest sin of all was forgetting to put the pen cap back on.  My sister and I were under the delusion that if you ran the tip under water, it would restore the color, but frankly, after a few dribbly scribbles, the ink was gone again.  But you couldn't throw them away because they were expensive.  While 64 Crayons ran you an even buck, these 10 markers were twice the cost.  Consequently, we had dry markers floating around for years, always under that same delusion they would some day magically work again.

The commercial for Flair Fi Fo Fum features a fun song, cute animation and Thurl Ravenscroft to boot.

Flair Fi Fo Fum pens were made by Gillette, makers of fine razors, and were introduced in 1974.  The last reference I can find for them is in a newspaper ad that dates from 1979.