Picketers Wax Nostalgic for 8 ‘Retired’ Crayolas

A handful of protesters took “umber-age” today, but it was out with the old and in with the new inside 64-color boxes of Crayola Crayons, the flip-top package that was the first status symbol for baby boomers.

Crayola maker Binney & Smith has created eight brighter colors and given them names like jungle green, wild strawberry and vivid tangerine.

To make room, the company decided to ax eight classic but ho-hum colors so that the traditional sharpener-equipped boxes could be preserved.

A ceremony this morning inducting the “retired” colors into the newly established Crayola Hall of Fame was picketed by about a dozen people who said they would miss maize, raw umber, lemon yellow, blue gray, violet blue, green blue, orange red and orange yellow.

“Binney & Smith, America takes umber-age,” said one sign. “Indians call it maize, we call it gone,” said another.

New 5-foot-10 models of the retired colors stand in plastic tubes in front of Crayola’s production center. Each has a plaque extolling the color’s virtues.

“We’ll all miss these retired colors. That’s why we started the Hall of Fame, so people can come by and see them whenever they want to,” said Tom Muller, general manager of Binney & Smith’s Crayola division.

Joining the list of new colors aimed at a fresh generation of children are dandelion, fuchsia, teal blue, royal purple and cerulean, a darker version of Crayola’s sky blue.