During your school days, did you compulsively stab your rubber with a pencil?

Yes, but mostly I used my compass and the double pointed one from my geometry set. In high school I did the plus one plus one plus one in my, $160 TI-85 graphics calculator. My record is 2600~ in one class.

Is rubber a euphemism for something else?

Ooooh…She said r u b b e r ;p

Maybe what Americans call an eraser.

Or maybe not.

But, er… yes.

Yes I did.

And that’s how it all started.

paper clips. I would unfurl the paper clip and drill it through the eraser.

Wouldn’t one need a long and flexible pencil, to be able for it to stab itself in the rubber?

Also I disagree with the word ‘compulsively’. I did it very methodically, slow and sure, during English class.

@rebbel
That is why you have multiple pencils.

Sounds kinky some how. Bet that would hurt something awful.

My rubber what??

Only sometimes. I had many pencils, and didn’t do it that much.

Americans, rubber does mean eraser.

Are you asking who’s a pencil dick?

Yes, I stand out from the crowd. I liked to keep my school supplies nice as long as I could. I also didn’t eat paste, glue, or clay. My one inappropriate use of a product was coating my hand with elmer’s glue, then keeping it hidden under the table until thoroughly dried. I carefully peeled it off in one piece. I gave the hand shaped dry glue to my friend, and told her I peeled the skin of my hand to make a gift of it for her. She got terminal heebee jeebees so I had to do a finger in front of her so she could calm down.
There’s the confession Mrs. P wanted so many decades ago.

Never, and I couldn’t believe most other kids were so happy to do that. They’d randomly snap their rulers in two, as well. I always liked my school supplies way too much for such shenanigans. I took care of my things in general, and classmates relied on me to lend them pencil sharpeners, tissues, and ink. I wonder what happened to that organised child in me!

Nope, like the last two jellies, I loved nice, neat supplies. Also I was raised by a single mom so she taught me ‘waste not, want not’.

I had forgotten but I now remember. I used to push the pencil lead into the rubber and twist it to force it in as far as it would go. When you pulled it out it left only the tiniest hole. Happy days.

Never. And I thought it was horribly ugly when other kids did that.

As for me, I wrote on mine with a ballpoint pen. My name, and then little drawings. Owning it was important, not killing it. I also liked the smooth feel of the pen on the rubber.

I loved all my school supplies, and I still love stationery stores. Paper of all kinds, pencils, pens, crayons, markers, rulers, templates, the works. And rubber erasers. Pink Pearls.

So no, I don’t think it’s a hereditary instinct to stab it. To mutilate it, though, maybe. Perhaps it resembles some small life form that was a pest or a danger to our remote ancestors?

 
@Patty_Melt, I did the same thing with the Elmer’s glue. I did it at home, though. No reprimand.

If it’s the pencil eraser we’re talking about the answer is “No.” I ate it.

No, but I once had a jar of mercury for a science fair project and had a great time rolling the little balls on the floor of my bedroom. Maybe that’s why I’m so strange?

We called erasers “erasers.”

@janbb That explains your nose growth!

@chyna Beak! It’s a beak, I tell ya!

^^^ LOL! Why so it is!

I’d say this is probably cross-cultural. Though maybe not universal.

I didn’t stab my erasers with my pencils. I drew all over them instead.

Totally agree with Jeruba. There’s something incredibly satisfying about ballpoint pen on a Pink Pearl.

Maybe the muscle memory satisfaction of getting the perfect speed and pressure to get a dark smooth line?

I can’t remember ever doing that.

Side story: An Iranian friend of mine in school had a horribly embarrassing moment in jr. high. Her family had fled to England first before coming to the US. One day when she was new in the US she raised her hand in class and asked the teacher for a rubber. Some kids in the class cracked up, and she was mortified when she learned what she had said. The hazards of the English language.

Yeah, the use of the word gave me a horrible mental image of some kid in school psychotically stabbing away with a sharp pencil at a painful situation.
:-0

Made me think of someone getting in-a-family-way due to gaping holes in rubbers.