Wednesday, June 10, 2009

What Was In Your Lunch Box? Childhood memories of the 60's and 70's (80's and 90's welcome too)

   This just pooped into my head and I will write more when I get back from running errands. While making my grocery list for this week I had a flash back to my childhood. Those wonderful metal lunch boxes, glass thermoses filled with milk, pudding cups and fruit cups that were in little metal cans with pop top lids. Those were the days. I remember boloney sandwiches with American cheese, tuna salad sandwiches and PB&J's. I believe I had a Partridge family lunch box in '71. I would have been in first grade. Metal lunch boxes and glass thermoses had a distinctive smell.

    Please respond in the comments with your childhood lunch box memories. I am feeling nostalgic. Now I know some of you are too young to remember metal lunch boxes. Some of you may only have memories of vinyl lunch bags. That is O.K. , lunch box memories of the '80s and '90s welcome too.

So What was in your Lunch box?

7 comments:

The Lady of the House said...

I remember my first lunch box. I got it in 1st or 2nd grade, so that would have been around 1982 or 1983. It was metal and had Holly Hobbie on it. The thermos was plastic. I can't remember what I ever had for lunch though!

This isn't related to the post, but I just wanted to thank you for the RCIA info you gave me a few months ago and also for the offer to email you. I really appreciate that. Around Easter, I got really homesick for the familiar service of my Pesbyterian church and have been attending there since 2 weeks before Easter.

The service was familiar and that was a comfort, but it felt hollow to me. I've continued attending hoping that maybe the hollowness would leave, but it hasn't; it's only grown worse. I know without a doubt that the Catholic Church is where I belong. This Sunday, I will again resume attending Mass and in the fall will begin with RCIA.

I've enjoyed reading about your journey to the Catholic Church.

Anonymous said...

I never had a lunch box. It was cheaper to eat hot lunches in the Iowa schools. I remember lunches being .50. My mom used to say it was cheaper to eat at school X 7 children.

I used to be jealous of Jodi. Her mother packed her a chocolate ding-dong every day!

Seraphima said...

I had a metal Strawberry Shortcake lunch box with a plastic thermos. Usually I would have strawberry milk and a salami sandwich.

Anonymous said...

Charlie's Angels! I remember a red and blue one too, but not the theme/characters - that must have been my "little kid" lunch box. I had Charlie's Angles through 5th grade, in 1977/78.

The distinctive smell - you are so right on that!

Bologna sandwiches, just like you, were in that lunch box. Only mine had ketchup on it (I cringe at the thought now). With milk in the thermos. And fruit and chips of some sort.

In 6th grade we were too cool to have lunch boxes and bought milk and brought lunch in a paper bag. By the time Jr. High rolled around, we were way too cool to bring lunch from home and it was some sort of social crime if you didn't buy the "hot lunch" the school served.

By high school, we went out to lunch until I was a Jr. when they "closed" the lunch hours and no longer let us off the grounds.

Wow. Now I'm in on memory lane.

Anonymous said...

I had a metal Rose Petal Place (http://www.desperateicons.com/splash02.JPG) lunchbox w/plastic thermos. (80s child).

I didn't pack nearly as much as I wanted to (thank you free lunch program), only about once or twice a year...I was thoroughly jealous of the 'packers'. We 'buyers' sat at a completely different table.

But when I did pack, my lunch always consisted of:

sandwich
side snack (chips or pretzels)
fruit (apple or banana)
dessert (Littel Debbie cake, cookies, etc)
Drink (kool aid) (the thermos lid was a little cup)

I later got a plastic yellow california raisins lunchbox w/thermos, but I don't recall ever using it. By that time the soft cooler type boxes were starting to come in.

Your blog always makes me smile...

*me

Anonymous said...

I suppose it is sort of sad that I can only remember having school lunches.

But oddly enough my mom did buy us lunch boxes for a least a few years. I think she intended to use them but then never got around to it.

Suzanne said...

I had the Partridge Family or Brady bunch lunch box...packed with tomato or chicken soup, Campbell's of course, P&B or tuna. Twinkie, ring ding or yodel and I bought a milk. Yeah totally healthy...LOL!