Glue and I go back a long way.
Recently I started sending out ebay items using the
ebay shipping labels. Navigating that process is daunting
and time consuming, but I think I’m getting the hang of
it. But, because I’m too cheap to TAPE the labels to the
little packages . . .
I have decided to glue them on. So, I reach for the Elmer’s
Glue and my blood pressure starts to rise because I know
the miserable little bottle won’t work properly. Why won’t
it just pour out when I turn the cap and tip it over?
First I go to the cupboard to get the glue—somewhere I have a different type of adhesive to use when the
grandchildren come and do craft stuff—but you
and I both know I can’t find that right now.
So, I’m left with Elmer’s. I have about four bottles–
some even have students’ names on them and I
quit teaching years ago!
I reach for an (unnamed) little one thinking that
might be the newest one (why?).
But the glue doesn’t even move in that one when I tip it over. So
I’ll try the big one—-marked $3.79. $3.79? I paid $3.79 for glue?
I hunker it over the back of the shipping label. Squeeze. Nothing.
Turn the cap, squeeze. Nothing. I once wrote a “piece” about
a battle with Elmer’s Glue—I remember it involved all kinds of
strategies—boiling hot water, unbent paper clips jammed in the
top, use of a corkscrew, (a bandaid), a nut pick, and even a
Blatz beer can opener.
This time I poke at it with an old hat pin—remember hat pins?–and
somehow this has a little success. I hear the faintest of wheezes when
I squeeze the bottle.
I content myself with dragging minuscule trails of white glue around
the shipping labels and vow to “fix” the cap on that thing before the
next go-round.
I love elmer’s glue but I also can relate to your frustrations. Still my childhood pleasure of coating my fingers in glue and then peeling it off remains. I don’t use the glue often as an adult but when I do I always seem to “accidentally” get glue on my fingers.
Hm-m-m-m
Those scraggly trails of glue are so unsatisfying, aren’t they? Clear out that cap and get a good thick line of glue or your shipping label may come unstuck!
I knew a boy in preschool who ate paste. He probably came to no good end….
No, he held together pretty well . . .