November 15, 2002
IT EVEN MADE THE PB&J TASTE BETTER:
Slice of Americana: 1950s lunch boxes going on tour (CARL HARTMAN, November 15, 2002, AP)The Smithsonian Institution has dug out kids' lunch boxes from among its prehistoric bones, Civil War relics and millions of other artifacts and is sending them on a sentimental journey to American museums.A three-year ''Lunch Box Memories'' tour begins Saturday at the Lafayette Natural History Museum in Lafayette, La. [...]
Best-remembered are children's lunch boxes that started appearing around 1950 and were tied to the emergence of television. Unlike the old steel boxes that were rounded and opened on top, these were square or oblong and opened on the side.
On one side would be a colorful picture about the size of an early TV screen. They first came from the popular Hopalong Cassidy cowboy series. More than 600,000 sold in its first year.
The most successful--a school bus crowded with Disney characters--sold more than 9 million.
But here, certainly, is the best:
I still rue the day I put Coke in the Thermos.
Posted by Orrin Judd at November 15, 2002 11:54 AM
Oh my goodness, I remember that lunchbox. I used to own it. When I was 9, I had a metal lunbox that was a 1776-Bicentennial themed thing. It was called Yankee Doodles or some such.
Also, there is this little breakfast place in New Orleans called Rick's Pancake Cottage and the ceiling is decorated with metal lunchboxes. I think the place is still there.
For me it was my c. 1979-80 Six Million Dollar Man lunchbox (hey, I'm only 31). I accidentally smashed it against something and broke a corner off. Lousy plastic...
Posted by: Steven Martinovich at November 15, 2002 3:36 PM