After years of confronting ridicule for being an illiterate branch whose personnel enjoy a nice wax snack after learning how to war from coloring books, Marines everywhere can rejoice — edible crayons have arrived.
As far as inter-service rivalries go, everyone who has served in uniform knows the stereotypes: soldiers are overweight, sailors are wimps, airmen are lazy, Marines are the dimmest bulbs in the box, and the Coast Guard ... well, they’re just the Coast Guard.
But the Marine Corps crayon-eating trope is perhaps the most well known and meme-worthy of the lot. Dozens of Reddit threads and Quora posts address the topic. The satire site DuffelBlog even once shared an unfortunate story about a Marine crayon-eating competition gone wrong.
That’s why Tashina Coronel, a Marine Corps veteran and the owner of Okashi Sweets, decided to start selling crayons Marines could actually eat. She also threw in edible glue for good measure.
“The crayons started as an inside joke between services,” Coronel told Military Times. “It was actually a jab at Marines from other services, trying to make fun of us. But as Marines, we can laugh along with them and own it as our own.”
A sweets creator by trade, Coronel has been working in the dessert industry for seven years after serving 10 years on active duty. Her decision to start making and selling edible crayons and glue was ultimately inspired by content on the aforementioned online threads.
“From the memes I was seeing on social media, it just made sense to make a novelty item for Marines to truly eat,” she said.
“It started out as a gag gift, but then spread like wildfire!”
Perhaps it’s finally time the Marine Corps considers amending its motto to “Semper fidelis manducare Crayola” — Always faithful to eat ... you know.
Sarah Sicard is a Senior Editor with Military Times. She previously served as the Digitial Editor of Military Times and the Army Times Editor. Other work can be found at National Defense Magazine, Task & Purpose, and Defense News.
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