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!
The title of your post actually brought that smell of my old metal lunch boxes and thermoses back to me! Just a hint of PB & J and a wafting of apple with a hint of warm milk – that’s what my lunch box smelled like before and after lunch – the smells were just stronger before, lol.
Like you I must have broken a gazillion of those old glass thermoses – my mother was constantly threatening to take the price out of my allowance. I would have been destitute for months if she had, lol!
I’ll be back to visit after my move! Pixel says Hi, Aspen!
As always, you are too funny, taking the price out of your allowance…haha!
Well at least you GOT an allowance back then…hehe…I had to earn my nickels and dimes by getting my math and multiplication right. Remember the, hmmm, were they called flash cards? Dad would hold up a card with a math problem on it, and if I got the answers right, I was rewarded with a little money which I used to buy candy at school. Unfortunately, I still count out answers on my fingers..secretly:-)
Thanks for the visit, and safe travels to you.