Tales from The Social Club: A Colorful Outing
Meeting Date and Time: Tuesday, January 14, 2025 from 5 PM to 7 PM
Meeting Location: The Color Factory, 251 Spring St, New York, NY 10013
Website Link: The Color Factory
You might think a place called The Color Factory would be a factory but it is more of museum. The first thought that came to my mind was that the group would, perhaps, be painting or drawing but, ultimately we did not do that. Instead, we visited a number of different rooms with interesting sights and activities. To try and visualize this, think of a one hallway in which the rooms were all connected.
The entrance was well decorated with what appeared to be streamers. To me, these streamers remind me of the those car wash brushes that brush up against a car windshield when a car is carried by the conveyor at a car wash. I went through these car washes many times as a passenger growing up.

Next, we continued to a conveyor belt full of fortune cookies called Cookie Clairvoyance. As you can see below, the cookies come in a variety of flavors and colors. I grabbed a lemon cookie.
Clockwise from Top Left: Cookie Clairvoyance Description Sign, List of Cookie Flavors, the Fortune Cookie I Selected, and Some of the Cookies
When I cracked opened the cookie, I received my lucky color and fortune which were Asphalt Gray (as shown in the picture below) and "Squeeze the day! There's no better time than now.", respectively. Of course both of these are random selections but I will analyze how they apply to me anyway. Asphalt Gray as my lucky color makes no sense as I do not drive at all. On the other hand, I believe they got my fortune correct. Squeeze the day I only assume is a parody on seize the day. This is a lemon cookie so think squeezing a lemon. But getting back to how they got the fortune correct, I think this is a good way to live life. The way being that, the moment you get up, have the optimism to tackle the day (squeeze the day). The second part of the fortune (there's no better time then now) means to not procrastinate in my view. A good reminder not only for myself but for all who struggle with procrastination from time to time.

After leaving this room, we proceeded to the next display called Chromaroma. In this room, 25 colors were paired with 25 different smells. The objective was to use a text clue to guess the scent. What I found was some smells were completely random and did not match the description (it seemed like they could have multiple scents depending on the situation), and others which did seem to match the clue. For example, take the first kiss scent. Depending on the situation, I would imagine this smells minty if someone took a breath mint. On the other hand, if someone had bad breath then that would be the smell. I do not remember what the scent in The Color Factory actually was but this example illustrates my point.

Now for two smells that actually smelled the way they were supposed to were fresh asphalt and keeps the doctor away (which smelled like an apple), as in an apple a day keeps the doctor away.
From Left to Right: Fresh Asphalt Clue and Keeps the Doctor Away Clue
After smelling the different scents, we headed to a room where we separated into 2 groups that were divided by a clear transparent wall. Then in each group, we split into pairs. One person was seated on one side of the wall while another person was seated on the other side so we were facing each other. An example of this is shown below.

With my partner and I facing each other, we listened to a series of prompts using the headphones that were provided. The instructions were also on a piece of paper for reference. Admittedly, I could not keep up with the instructor in spite of, in my opinion, the instructor going at a relatively slow pace and repeating the instructions a second time. I just cannot process information that quickly and was in a bit of a state of panic.
The first set of instructions were relatively simple: "What colors do you see in your partner's eyes, hair, clothes, or accessories?" Based on what we observed, we were supposed to fill in two squares on a sheet of paper with two different colors using colored pencils. However, the second set of instructions were much more difficult, "Guess their favorite color, and the color of their current mood," and fill in a color for each one on the same sheet of paper. Thinking back, the only way I can think of to guess someone's favorite color is, perhaps, by what they were wearing and even then that may be incorrect. As far as guessing the color of their current mood, I did find out through internet research after the fact that indeed different colors correspond to different moods. However, I did not have that information when completing this exercise. Even if I did, I would be unlikely to correctly guess your current mood as, being on the Autism Spectrum, interpreting mood based on facial expressions is an extremely difficult exercise.
The third exercise was, in my opinion, the hardest. Given a circle, each pair was instructed to pick up their pencil and look at their partner. Then, in the circle, each pair was instructed to put their pencil inside the circle and draw their partner's portrait without lifting the pencil off the page and keeping their eyes on their partner the whole time. Admittedly, in a state of panic here, I did not follow the instructions at all instead trying to draw what the person's face actually looked like.
After finishing the drawing, I was instructed to pick up a compliment card and pass it to my partner through a gap in the wall along with the white sheet of paper I used to complete the three exercises. My card said “you deserve a blue ribbon” although given how much I struggled with the instructions, I certainly did not feel this way. In fact, so much so, I told my partner not to take anything I did in these exercises personally. She did not.

After completing our color palettes, we proceeded into a room where would could select a taffy sample of our choice. I selected a lemon cream one which was very tasty.
List of Available Taffy Flavors (Left) and Lemon Taffy (Right)
After enjoying a tasty treat, we headed into a room where we could make some music by using spheres at the end of drum sticks and banging them on metal edges.

From there we entered one of my favorites rooms, a magical place when confetti came down from the ceiling. This definitely made me feel like a kid again. It also reminded me of a time I went through Times Square on New Year's Eve (even though at was 7:45 AM). On my way to work, even at that morning hour, people were already gathered at the base of where the ball drops at midnight. This means that these people waited over 16 hours to see the ball drop, which is incredible to think about.

We then proceeded to go to a ball pit. This absolutely made me feel like a kid again. Sliding down a slide into the balls was definitely a highlight.
TSC Members on the Slide
Relaxing by lying down on the balls was fun as well.

We concluded our trip to The Color Factory by exploring the gift shop.
The Color Factory Gift Shop
Of note, in addition to NYC, The Color Factory also exists in Houston and Chicago.
Overall, this was a good experience. I'd recommend that anyone with sensory sensitivities take the sensory nature of this venue into consideration before checking it out, whether that means bringing along noise-canceling headphones, going on a day when you feel up for it, or reminding yourself you can leave early if you need to.