While digging through my desk the other day, I came across a hippopotamus silly band. This hippo-shaped piece of rubber, buried beneath crumpled-up old math worksheets and broken mechanical pencils, reminded me of the numerous different fads that have captured the attention of our generation since elementary school.

I’ll be the first to admit, that I have fallen prey to some of these. If I’m not paying attention I often find myself spinning a pen.

Remember in middle school when everyone had to have a Livestrong bracelet? One day, no one had them and the next I remember asking everyone I knew if they had one to spare.

I have no idea how this fad came about, but before I knew it, it was spiraling out of control. Not only were people wearing just the yellow Livestrong bracelets but also pink ones from Target and multi-colored ones.

I recall a friend going online and ordering a 20-pack of rubber bracelets. I suppose the fad eventually died when its novelty wore off; once everyone had a Livestrong bracelet, no one was interested in them anymore. If I dug even deeper into the depths of my desk drawers, I bet I could find my old Livestrong bracelet too.

When I was in eighth grade, I could hardly walk down the hallways without hearing kids, mostly boys, making that finger-clicking sound from “Da Ali G Show.” It sounds like a muffled thud a few times every second. A boy would walk up to his friend and say something like, “Hey, I had some Chartwells’ pizza for lunch, ‘thud,’” and his friend would reply, “Ew dude, that stuff is nasty, ‘thud.’”

The finger-click was used as an extension of conversation or emotion. The sound of their index finger slapping against their middle finger was in the cafeteria, library and pods. People would continue to do it despite the fact that it left a welt on their middle finger. Yet, one day it mysteriously disappeared, likely when everyone found a new fad to obsess over.

The biggest fad that took over Staples was, of course, Silly Bandz. I am not entirely certain how they came about but I think they first became popular in the elementary schools.

Overnight, it seemed that everyone had at least a few. I managed to find a packet or two at home and brought them to school because, who can resist a good fad?

At lunch and in the library they were traded (“Ohmygosh, is that one glow-in-the-dark? I’ll swap you my entire jungle pack for that!), they often came flying across classrooms because of their impressive ability to be stretched and still return to their original shape was constantly tested.

I recall a friend mentioning that some of the elementary schools had to institute policies banning Silly Bandz on school grounds because kids were wearing them up to their elbows and cutting off their circulation.

However, when I returned to school after the summer vacation, the Silly Bandz were gone!

The current fad captivating Staples students is pen spinning. I’ll admit, I am a big pen-spinner. It annoys my parents and likely some teachers but once you start, it is a difficult habit to break.

I can figure out how pen-spinning began; likely one student figured out how to do it and others followed, realizing how cool it was.

Now, of course there are variations on the one spin that much of the school knows. In fact, I can hardly sit through a class without hearing a pen that flew off someone’s hand mid-spin hit the floor.

I suppose only a little time will tell if pen-spinning will go the way of Silly Bandz or is here to stay.

The fads I mentioned above are not the only ones that have intrigued Westport students.

Anyone remember Pokemon cards, mighty beans and miniature “Tech Deck” skateboards?

I’ve yet to figure out how a fad forms but, as an experiment, would anyone like to start a fad of creating lanyards? Remember at camp how everyone would be making the box or barrel lanyards? We could restart that.