Mostly Brave

“Lunch hour is the best part of the day.”- Author Unknown

I have batted around a couple of ideas to write in this blog but I decided I wanted to write about something fun that could be interactive. Today, I want to talk about lunch boxes. If you grew up in the 1950’s, 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s then you should be familiar with the tin boxes that we would pack our school lunches packed in.

First day of school baby!  New school supplies, your backpack, your brand-new (very warm) outfit that really should have been worn in the fall but you were so stoked you just had to wear it in August. And then there was the lunchbox that you picked our for the new school year. Always exciting, at least for me.

In the 1950’s some of the favorite lunch boxes were:

• Howdy Doody
• Lone Ranger
• Space Cadet
• Robin Hood
• Trigger
• Walt Disney’s Davy Crockett
• It’s a Small World
• Junior Miss
• Peanuts
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

In the 1960’s some of the favorite lunch boxes were:

• Lost in Space
• The Beverly Hillbillies
• The Munsters
• The Beatles
• Batman
• Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
• Flipper
• Family Affair
• The Flintstones
• The Jetsons-Most Popular
• Barbie

The 1970’s had some bangers:

• Miss America
• Six Million Dollar Man
• Harlem Globetrotters
• Scooby Doo
• Battlestar Galactica
• Planet of the Apes
• GI Joe
• The Brady Bunch wedding
• Charlie’s Angels
• Disney School Bus
• Welcome Back, Kotter

And the 1980’s:

• Pac-Man
• Alf
• Gremlins
• Superman
• E.T.
• Annie
• Dukes of Hazzard
• Strawberry Shortcake
• Empire Strikes Back

The 1980’s also manufactured the very last tin- lunchbox; Rambo-1985 and is now on display at the National Museum of American History.

One of my fondest memories in elementary school is that most of us packed our lunches in metal lunch boxes. Mine was shaped like a school bus with Disney characters hanging out the windows. Nine million school buses were sold.

Choosing your lunchbox was a big deal. Some of my classmates had the Bionic Woman, Scooby Doo and characters from Happy Days or Star Wars. It was always exciting to choose a different lunch box for the new school year.

Trading lunches was the thing to do, but my lunch rarely got picked up for the trade with a thermos of chicken noodle soup, a sandwich, some warm carrots in a baggie, and maybe some Charles Chips that my family called Charlie’s Chips.

These chips were popular in the 1970s in my neighborhood. The Charles Chips truck would stop at our house and the delivery man would refill the large chip tins that were on our front porch. The chips were so greasy, but man, they were delicious. 

Anyway, back to the lunch trading, where the biggest traders were Hostess Ding Dongs, Snack Pack puddings, and Hostess fruit pies. But, if I played my cards right, there would be some kid that wanted something salty, and good ole Charlie’s Chips would reel them in.

Now, this is where you come in! 😊 I am wanting to know what your favorite tin lunchbox was and what you hoped would be in it.