Vintage Metal Lunch Boxes, Remember How They Smelled?

Published by admin under Lunch Boxes on November 18, 2008

I can remember my square, metal lunchbox with whatever cartoon or movie character was popular at the time, can’t quite remember what I had on mine, somewhere back in my mind “Little Red Riding Hood” seems to be hiding…could there have been such a lunchbox? Maybe I’m confusing it with a Halloween costume.  Who knows.

By the way, someone is selling the one pictured on ebay. It’s from 1959, I guess I would have been in about 2nd grade when it was made? I wouldn’t be surprised if I had one like this, with cowboys, after all, I did want airplanes on my wallpaper…and Mom & Dad always gave us the freedom to chose what we liked.

What I do remember was carrying that lunch box with care, you didn’t want to drop it, or the glass-lined thermos (heaven forbid a child would ever carry one of those today!!) would break, and little pieces of glass would spoil the milk inside…and every child, at least that is what I was told, drank milk, it built strong bones…between milk and Wonder Bread in my sandwiches building “strong bodies in 12 ways”, I was set! When you opened the lunch box, the thermos was held in place by a metal thingy, if it hadn’t broken off, holding the thermos in place so that it didn’t crush your sandwich that was wrapped in waxed paper, or bruise your apple or banana.

Some days, opening the box would bring forth delicious smells, like when my Mom would make me one of my favorite sandwiches, bologna and mustard.  Peanut Butter and Jelly, I can distinctly remember that smell, but it wasn’t one of my favorites because it was such a common lunch.  Tuna sandwiches, yuk, that’s a smell I could do without. But after a long time of use, the smells seemed to blend together and become one with the lunch box, and it was about then that it was time to get something new.

And the thermos, remember screwing off the first top, which would serve as your cup, and then the little stopper top that screwed off (they could smell pretty bad too, sometimes, if I remember correctly), and if you hadn’t dropped your lunchbox or thermos, you could safely drink whatever was inside.   When the thermos was clean, the glass inside was shiny and silvery, remember? And remember how EXTRA shiney and silvery they were when new? I can’t tell you how many of those things I broke! Too many, so happy that my children had plastic when I raised them!