49-Year Old Late Night Host Gives His Former Okemos Elementary School a Subtle Nod Every Show
Who knew?! Though he was born in Evanston, Illinois, a former SNL head writer, impersonator of Kevin Federline and host of Late Night on NBC lived in Okemos from the age of 4 to 10. Seth Meyers once walked the halls of the former Edgewood Elementary School.
In an April 2022 interview with the Detroit Free Press, Meyers talked about his time in Michigan and how a piece of Edgewood Elementary has been a part of Late Night.
Meyers, like so many people north of 40, has fond memories of a relict that could soon only be seen in a museum or antique store. The 50-cent pencil machine.
When asked what he remembered the most about his childhood in Okemos, Meyers said:
The thing I remember most about Edgewood is we used to have these machines in the hallway and you would put in 50 cents ... and you would get two pencils. The pencils were NFL pencils. But this is before there were any licensing deals, so it was only the colors of the (football) team and the team's name along the pencil.
You can hear the sound of that pencil machine, can’t you? You’d put your quarters in and either slide or twist them in, hearing your purchase cascade down the wooden shoot, holding your breath, hoping you got the one you wanted. Some schools featured sports teams, some featured cartoon characters like Garfield or Batman, while some only offered the classic yellow #2.
Meyer’s desk will often feature coffee mugs from NBC affiliate stations sitting next to his Late Night mug which is filled with pencils. He told the Detroit Free Press:
…if you look at the pencils in my desk on "Late Night," those are the pencils. I found them on eBay because I had such fond memories of the pencils that were in the hallway at Edgewood Elementary.
A little piece of Okemos can be seen by the keen-eyed observer during every edition of The Late Show with Seth Meyers. Now we need to get a WILX mug on that desk ASAP!