They Don’t Make Them Like They Used To
By GlindaThe other day on Manolo Beauty (and if you haven’t gone over there yet and checked it out, it is a rather good site, if I do say so myself) I had mentioned a lunch box I used to take to school every day. Being the 70’s/80’s, it was of course made out of metal. That post got me thinking about those old metal lunch boxes and how different they are to the ones kids use today.
The one my son takes to school is fantastic. It is insulated, big enough to fit everything he needs but small enough to still fit in his backpack, has a front pocket, and just does an all around good job of keeping his drink and whatever fruit I pack in there cold until lunchtime.
So very different from the metal ones, which did a crappy job of keeping anything warm or cold, but damn, did they look good. We didn’t know it then, but we were toting around compact works of art. Sure, a lot of those lunchboxes were just advertising disguising themselves as something useful, but they were so much more visually stimulating.
Today we definitely choose function over form, but I can’t help but be a bit nostalgic about those metal boxes. And really, they were useful as weapons, too. I love things that can do double duty. Today’s lunch boxes are soft-sided and useless in a fight.
Join me as I take a trip down memory lane…
I would have loved to have this lunch box!
Never knew anyone with one of these, but I covet it even now.
It seems out of all the recycled 80’s characters, Holly Hobbie was totally left in the dust. Confession, I had this lunch box. And I hated it. And I hated Holly Hobbie. She stood for nothing other than her dumb patchwork clothing.
I NEVER got into Strawberry Shortcake, but I was totally in the minority. I guarantee you someone in my class had this lunchbox.
Yes, we all watched Mork & Mindy, but I don’t know anybody who liked it enough to own a lunchbox with it. Maybe I was hanging with the wrong crowd.
Yes, I owned a Cabbage Patch Kid, who was inexplicably a boy.
I can sing the theme song to this show to this day.
Anybody else think the Sleestaks were pretty lame?
February 3rd, 2011 at 10:32 am
Remember how you had to be so careful not to drop the thermos? They broke so easily.
February 3rd, 2011 at 12:59 pm
I actually had the Strawberry Shortcake lunchbox! I later spray painted it silver and installed a light into it for a science fair or something.
February 4th, 2011 at 4:02 pm
I had the Holly Hobby lunch box, but in magenta tones. If you ever find yourself on a road trip in the I-5, you must, must stop by the Apricot Tree in Firebaugh. http://ottoinfocus.com/?tag=vintage-lunch-boxes
You will be mesmerized by these blasts from the past! The only one of mine I didn’t see was a very stylish red vinyl “The Pussycats” lunch pail.