lauf

Do laminating machines still exist? There was one in the supply closet, next to the mimeograph. (Mimeography! I'll resist the temptation to write about that now.) The fresh laminate had a weird, plastic smell, just as you'd expect it to. The laminated sheets came out warm and quasi-sticky. It was like running things through a steamroller that was also a toaster.

You were not restricted to paper. You could send through autumn leaves, new-fallen and red orange purple yellow with fingers of green still running down their veins. I liked the tri-colors. And the deep bluish-red ones. You could catch them under clear plastic like the first thin layer of ice on the pond. A sheet might contain eight of nine of them, and you'd take a scissors and cut carefully around the edges, leaving a half an inch of plastic all the way around.

It was an amazing thing: the corrupting air was kept out, and the leaves retained their brilliance for weeks, months, years. Is there still a box of them tucked away somewhere? I hope so. I'd like to see them again.