Black, Green, White (5 minute freewrite - Friday prompt: whiteboard

There was a time when blackboards were actually black. By the time I was in school, they were green. But they were still called blackboards. I suppose they could just have been called chalkboards, and perhaps, in some places, they were. I will call them that today. Chalk was dusty, sneezey stuff, and so were the erasers. It isn't easy to write nicely on a chalkboard with chalk. And there is nothing quite like the ghastly sound made by fingernails on a chalkboard. It makes me shiver just to think about it.

And then somebody invented the whiteboard. It certainly has its advantages. It erases without causing a dusty mess, and the markers can be colorful, not just black. I've never heard anybody try to scrape their fingernails across a whiteboard. Their biggest disadvantage, in my opinion, is the makers smell bad. If I am shut into a small room where someone is using a whiteboard, like in a meeting room, I can quickly develop a headache from the odor of those markers.

We have a whiteboard at home. It is useful for leaving little notes, like "Mom is napping so don't slam the door," or " Call work as soon as you find this note" or "Be sure to let the cats out before you leave." The trouble is, some of us don't go past that whiteboard in a timely fashion. It is downstairs, and sometimes we don't go down there. Or those who sleep downstairs might not have their glasses on when they get up, so they won't see a note, anyway. Still, it seems like a useful thing to have around.

And I think this is the most boring freewrite I have produced yet!!! I will blame it on the late hour...once again.