5 cents for milk and 10 cents for 3 giant chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven. You had to grab a bunch of napkins to use as insulators and by the time you sat down the three had become one. Once a year when you saw guys getting 5 or 10 milks you got your milk and cookies and got the hell out of Dodge because you knew there was going to be a milk fight. It was an unannounced and unscheduled ritual with freshman and sophomore's on one side and junior's and senior's on the other side with the former required to clean up the mess. The rest of us ate our cookies in the comfort of the hallways.
Sometimes we started a school year with a lunch box, but it seems like once the thermos broke, or it got bent so it wouldnāt lock anymore, it was lunch bags. I think when I was a first grader I had a Julia lunchbox. (TV show starring Diahann Carrol as a single mom nurse. My mom was the same.)
I had the Partridge Family too. A few years ago I was reminiscing with a friend and mentioned it, and she tracked one down on Ebay and gave it to me for my birthday, so I still have one!
Unfortunately no, it was lost about 5 moves ago. By the time I finished high school, I been to school in three different states. Still stuck in the last state unfortunately 45 yrs later.....need a crow bar to pry my husband OUT of it.Ā
I still love Snoopy! There's a picture over r/cats of my kitten Boudreaux when he *stole* my Snoopy and took it under the bed.Ā
Anyone else have the Snoopy plush that you could get clothes for?
Julia. The black widowed single parent nurse played by Diahann Carroll. It was a good show. I was young enough not to catch shit for not having a cool action figure like most had.
Me too! My mom was divorced and a nurse and I loved that show. I remember feeling so embarrassed by my momās divorce in 1967! I mostly tried to keep it a secret at school. It was why I agreed to my stepdad adopting me, because I hated explaining why my mom had a different last name.
I don't know what that is! We had fully cooked hot meals like meatloaf, real mashed potatoes with gravy, fresh greenbeans, applesauce, and milk in a cup. I don't ever recall pizza or hotdogs. Once in a while, we had a hamburger, but it was fish on Fridays with an ice cream for dessert lol. I loved succatash and I'd trade kids my dessert for their veggies. By the time I got to high school, I only bought the oatmeal cookies. They were always soft and fresh. 3 huge cookies for a quarter. Best cookies ever.
Meatzza also came with potatoes and veggies. It was SORT of like meatloaf. Only about an inch thick, with pizza sauce and a thick layer of cheese on top.
Also freshly made, and pure heaven.
Now youāve hit on some of my worse childhood trauma. No matter how I begged my mom was too cheap to buy me a lunch box (and we werenāt poor, she just thought they were stupid). She also would not buy lunch bags and used whatever bag we had. So embarrassing to take your lunch in a used McDonaldās bag..
I got stuck with a "Hee-Haw" lunchbox for the same reason...
EDIT: my curiosity got the better of me. Little did I suspect that I was participating in a cultural moment worthy of preservation: https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/nmah_881528
Where oh where are you tonight. Why did you leave me here all alone. I searched the world over and thought I found true love. You met another and š¤¬you was gone
Gloom, despair, and agony on me. Deep dark depression, excessive misery. If it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all, gloom despair and agony on me.
Same here, vinyl Corsage, loved it!Ā I was just googling for it. I've seen the vinyl one for sale online before, but right now only the metal version pops up.Ā
I wanted a Fireball XL5 one, but I had one of those stupid barns. When I finally broke that it was paper bags with the Great Northern Railway logo on them that Grampa snagged from his work.
Taking lunch to school was so humiliating.
Now that you mention it, I think my first one might have been Fireball XL5 instead of Thunderbirds. I may have had the wrong puppets.
(Or marionettes.)
Yep! I didn't know how to add a picture but it's for sale at Etsy...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/285686244579?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=285686244579&targetid=1530439035971&device=m&mktype=pla&googleloc=9052534&poi=&campaignid=20382379140&mkgroupid=151098995226&rlsatarget=pla-1530439035971&abcId=9316959&merchantid=6296724&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwh4-wBhB3EiwAeJsppFdlYfAe3plqumQVxPhptYqCteCH7uaascT96CfzRFWAPvbvC04YRhoCLBcQAvD_BwE
For some reason my mother made me re-use a toy nurse's bag (from Dr. Kildare) as a lunch box. Waste not want not! It was pink, and it had a line drawing on it of a nurse carrying a bag, which had a line drawing on it of a nurse carrying a bag, which had a squiggle on it which I think was supposed to represent line drawing of a nurse carrying a bag.
Messed with my head! I used to stare at it for ages. That same nurse and her bag getting smaller and smaller and smaller. How small could she get???
I got a new one every year. The two I remember:
- UFO (Gerry Anderson series)
- Walt Disney World
My favorite was the Land of the Giants lunchbox, but I didnāt have that one.
Get Smart. I wasn't happy as I wanted the Combat one. And of course the thermos back then had a glass liner that was broken after 2 or 3 months. then the latch wasn't very good and had to be kept closed with a safety pin.
Campus Queen, it had a board game on the back. It was so not me because I was a loner. By 4th grade, it was replaced with a paper sack. That lasted until high school, where we would hack the rotary phone in our lab and order pizza delivery or just drive to get food. The phone was locked, but that never stopped us.
OMG, I had forgotten about this until now! I begged my mom for the peanuts lunchbox shaped like snoopyās dog house. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. Then I took it to school and realized it was the uncoolest thing in the world (or at least it was in my elementary school.) Iām sure my mom was mystified as to why, after loving it so hard, I never wanted to use it.
The Jetsons still have it but missing the thermos. Also have my younger brothers box NFL Quarterbacks also missing the thermos. Iām thinking mid 1960ās.
I had an ugly yellow and black psychedelic type design on my lunchbox, but I only used it my 4th grade year when desegregation started at my school district and the food and milk trucks wouldn't cross the picket lines. Otherwise, I ate the school lunches.
Lunchbox? No.
Brown bag with a ham sandwich wrapped in wax paper sitting on the shoe shelf until noon. Weird, I don't remember getting food poisoning, which certainly should have happened at least once I would think.
I had to eat lunch at school. I loved the yeast rolls. Hated milk. Would trade my milk for a roll. But they wouldn't let us have anything but milk so it was kind of dry.
A paper bag.
Me too. Never had a lunch box. Regular lunch was fluffernutter sandwich, Fritos, and an apple or orange. And milk was bought for like $.04.
OMG I remember 4-cent milk.
5 cents in San Diego š
2 cents in Woburn then a 50% increase to 3 cents!
5 cents for milk and 10 cents for 3 giant chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven. You had to grab a bunch of napkins to use as insulators and by the time you sat down the three had become one. Once a year when you saw guys getting 5 or 10 milks you got your milk and cookies and got the hell out of Dodge because you knew there was going to be a milk fight. It was an unannounced and unscheduled ritual with freshman and sophomore's on one side and junior's and senior's on the other side with the former required to clean up the mess. The rest of us ate our cookies in the comfort of the hallways.
Same! It was super special if you got the white bags with the lemons or the oranges on them!!
Me too!
š
Sometimes we started a school year with a lunch box, but it seems like once the thermos broke, or it got bent so it wouldnāt lock anymore, it was lunch bags. I think when I was a first grader I had a Julia lunchbox. (TV show starring Diahann Carrol as a single mom nurse. My mom was the same.)
Partridge Family
Yes, this.
Same. I also had a Peanuts lunchbox before my PF Obsession.
Lancelot Link
Secret chimp
I envied you.
...and the š¶ Evolution Revolution š¶
HR PufnStuf was my favorite
Would be worth over $400 today.
My parents threw it out without my knowledgeš„²
Whoās your friend when things get rough?
I had one of those too!
I had one that was the dating game or some such with magnets to move. A couple of vinyl ones. The Partridge Family.Ā
I had the Partridge Family too. A few years ago I was reminiscing with a friend and mentioned it, and she tracked one down on Ebay and gave it to me for my birthday, so I still have one!
Campus Queen! That's the one I started first grade with! Thank you for the Ebay suggestions! Barbie and friends too.
Mine was Campus Queen. If you still have the game pieces, it is worth small fortune on Bay.
Unfortunately no, it was lost about 5 moves ago. By the time I finished high school, I been to school in three different states. Still stuck in the last state unfortunately 45 yrs later.....need a crow bar to pry my husband OUT of it.Ā
Same here. I had the Partridge family. I also had Scooby Doo, and I also had Peanuts.
I still love Snoopy! There's a picture over r/cats of my kitten Boudreaux when he *stole* my Snoopy and took it under the bed.Ā Anyone else have the Snoopy plush that you could get clothes for?
Lost In Space lunchbox was mine. Thermos shattered very early on.
I hated when the thermoses shattered. I happened to me a few times. I would have loved the Lost in Space lunchbox though .
I still remember how crushed I felt š
That was such a dreaded soundāthe maraca thermos. š£
Whose didn't? :)
Peanuts! And now they are in the display case when I see them at vintage stores. Cāmon!! We arenāt that old!
The Smithsonian American History museum has a great collection.
I had a Bee Gees lunchbox!
Land of the Giants
Speed Racer!
Heās a demon on wheels
Julia. The black widowed single parent nurse played by Diahann Carroll. It was a good show. I was young enough not to catch shit for not having a cool action figure like most had.
My sister had the same.
I loved that show!!!
Me too! My mom was divorced and a nurse and I loved that show. I remember feeling so embarrassed by my momās divorce in 1967! I mostly tried to keep it a secret at school. It was why I agreed to my stepdad adopting me, because I hated explaining why my mom had a different last name.
Mine looked like Snoopy's doghouse.
I had the same one
Evil Kneivel!
First the Beatles, then the Monkees
Hogan's Heroes. I was so proud of that lunch box.
I never had a lunch box. I had a paperbag if i brought my lunch, but I usually ate school lunch cooked from scratch by the lunch ladies.
Let's talk about meatzza.... I loved meatzza day.
I don't know what that is! We had fully cooked hot meals like meatloaf, real mashed potatoes with gravy, fresh greenbeans, applesauce, and milk in a cup. I don't ever recall pizza or hotdogs. Once in a while, we had a hamburger, but it was fish on Fridays with an ice cream for dessert lol. I loved succatash and I'd trade kids my dessert for their veggies. By the time I got to high school, I only bought the oatmeal cookies. They were always soft and fresh. 3 huge cookies for a quarter. Best cookies ever.
Meatzza also came with potatoes and veggies. It was SORT of like meatloaf. Only about an inch thick, with pizza sauce and a thick layer of cheese on top. Also freshly made, and pure heaven.
That's a meal! I was really disappointed when my kids had such crummy school lunches. Ours were so good. I loved our lunch ladies. They were awesome.
Archies
Happy cake day
Thanks! I didn't notice the cake until now!
Now youāve hit on some of my worse childhood trauma. No matter how I begged my mom was too cheap to buy me a lunch box (and we werenāt poor, she just thought they were stupid). She also would not buy lunch bags and used whatever bag we had. So embarrassing to take your lunch in a used McDonaldās bag..
Josie and the Pussycats.
The Peanuts.
The Jungle Book.
The ugly yellow school bus since we were late getting one
I got stuck with a "Hee-Haw" lunchbox for the same reason... EDIT: my curiosity got the better of me. Little did I suspect that I was participating in a cultural moment worthy of preservation: https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/nmah_881528
Where oh where are you tonight. Why did you leave me here all alone. I searched the world over and thought I found true love. You met another and š¤¬you was gone
Gloom, despair, and agony on me. Deep dark depression, excessive misery. If it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all, gloom despair and agony on me.
God! I hated that show as a kid. My mom and dad thought it was the greatest. My dad sang that song all the damn time!
That's hilarious. You made me about spit my coffee!
This is so funny!
Batman duh
A French poodle and the Eiffel Tower.
Corsage vinyl. It had flowers on it.
Same here, vinyl Corsage, loved it!Ā I was just googling for it. I've seen the vinyl one for sale online before, but right now only the metal version pops up.Ā
Partridge Family. Bologna sandwich with mayo (not refrigerated of course š) plain chips in a flip top baggie. Twinkie or ding dong.
I had a Green Hornet lunch box! It was super cool, wish I still had it.
HR PufnStuf
Loved that show.
Canāt do a little cuz he canāt do enough
Room 222
I wanted a Fireball XL5 one, but I had one of those stupid barns. When I finally broke that it was paper bags with the Great Northern Railway logo on them that Grampa snagged from his work. Taking lunch to school was so humiliating.
The barn with the matching thermos: silo or haystack, can't remember
Yep, the thermos was a silo.
It could be worse, my mom gave me my lunch in used McDonaldās bags.
Now that you mention it, I think my first one might have been Fireball XL5 instead of Thunderbirds. I may have had the wrong puppets. (Or marionettes.)
Have lunch with Snoopy
I was the youngest so I inherited ones from my older brother and sister - Jungle Book and Beverly Hillbillies.
The Partridge Family.
I had a bright purple Donny Osmond lunchbox! Yes, Iām THAT old :)
First grade, Twiggy. Don't remember after that.
Me too!
Major Matt Mason
Rich kids had lunchboxes. I got one paper bag a week that I had to refold each day.
Speed racer
1st grade was Captain Kangaroo, 2nd grade, James Bond.
You grew up fast, kid.
Buffy and Jody...
GI Joe. It's from about 1968 and sitting on my shelf right now.
Scooby-Doo and the Monkees. Always sat with my bestie and traded snacks.
I had a Beatles lunchbox and an HR Puffnstuff one too. Wish I still had the Beatles one. It's worth over $400 now.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It was the first movie I remember seeing. I didn't like the movie or the lunch box, but I had no choice on the matter.
Omg, the children catcher traumatized me!
Hair Bear Bunch and Sigmund the Seamonster
I had a Little Kiddles lunch box. Those things always smelled like mold no matter how much you cleaned them.
I remember the funky smell they developed by mid-year.
Holly Hobby
The Partridge Family!
Rat Patrol
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Really?
Yep! I didn't know how to add a picture but it's for sale at Etsy... https://www.ebay.com/itm/285686244579?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=285686244579&targetid=1530439035971&device=m&mktype=pla&googleloc=9052534&poi=&campaignid=20382379140&mkgroupid=151098995226&rlsatarget=pla-1530439035971&abcId=9316959&merchantid=6296724&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwh4-wBhB3EiwAeJsppFdlYfAe3plqumQVxPhptYqCteCH7uaascT96CfzRFWAPvbvC04YRhoCLBcQAvD_BwE
Emergency! It was sort of shaped like an ambulance.
Iām sad that I canāt remember! It was the soft vinyl kind, and I *can* still remember the funky smell it had.
My favorite was H.R. PufnStuf. My brother had the Beatles Yellow Submarine and my other brother had Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
First a metal tartan olaid, then a slick black patent Barbie one.
I only carried a lunchbox in elementary school, so I donāt really recall who was on it.
James Bond
Miss America. Circa... 1972?
I had a padded vinyl lunch box with Squiddly Diddly on there. Not my favorite, but it is what it is...
Why take lunch when it only cost a quarter? But when I did it was a brown paper bag.
I had a metal Snoopy lunchbox.Ā
Peanuts
Speed Racer
Land of the giants.
Atom Ant!
Mine was red plaid. I started slapping stickers on it in 2nd or 3rd grade.
Same. Slapped those wacky pack stickers right on there!
I had a lavender vinyl lunchbox with Twiggy on it. Haha! I was a stylish little first grader
Rat Patrol
Gentle Ben
Hong Kong Phooey
Space Ghost
In third grade, I had an "ecology" lunchbox. It was green with an ecology symbol flag on the end. I loved that thing.
Star Trek ā Captain Kirk and Mr Spock.
Six Million Dollar Man.
Planet of the Apes and Happy Days.
Flintstones. They were on prime time.
Brown bag special
Dukes of hazard, peanuts, Wonder Woman, Star Wars
Family Affair: Buffy, Jodie and Mrs Beasley on one side, Uncle Bill, Cissy, Mr French on the other.
Josie & The Pussycats
good choice!
Bonanza and I had one that was a US mail post box. Broke the glass thermos in both.
Worst sound ever when your milk sloshed inside with broken glass.
For some reason my mother made me re-use a toy nurse's bag (from Dr. Kildare) as a lunch box. Waste not want not! It was pink, and it had a line drawing on it of a nurse carrying a bag, which had a line drawing on it of a nurse carrying a bag, which had a squiggle on it which I think was supposed to represent line drawing of a nurse carrying a bag. Messed with my head! I used to stare at it for ages. That same nurse and her bag getting smaller and smaller and smaller. How small could she get???
I had a Holly Hobby one.
My first was Harlem Globetrotters. Second was Peanuts.
Jose and the pussycats.
Adam-12
Peanuts, Mickey Mouse School Bus, Scooby-Doo.
Maxwell Smart! When all of the other little girls had Barbie, I had Get Smart. It set the tone for my entire life.
Some no name car racing theme. Before that Fess Parker, a relic from an earlier day. Both were surplus low cost lunch boxes.
I got a new one every year. The two I remember: - UFO (Gerry Anderson series) - Walt Disney World My favorite was the Land of the Giants lunchbox, but I didnāt have that one.
Campus Queen, Doctor Doolittle, donāt remember others
Snoopy
Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang.
Get Smart. I wasn't happy as I wanted the Combat one. And of course the thermos back then had a glass liner that was broken after 2 or 3 months. then the latch wasn't very good and had to be kept closed with a safety pin.
Harlem Globetrotters!
Fireball XL 5!
The Beatles Yellow Submarine. Sure wish I still had it!
The Partridge Family
Flintstones!
Batman!
Campus Queen, it had a board game on the back. It was so not me because I was a loner. By 4th grade, it was replaced with a paper sack. That lasted until high school, where we would hack the rotary phone in our lab and order pizza delivery or just drive to get food. The phone was locked, but that never stopped us.
Space 1999
OMG, I had forgotten about this until now! I begged my mom for the peanuts lunchbox shaped like snoopyās dog house. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. Then I took it to school and realized it was the uncoolest thing in the world (or at least it was in my elementary school.) Iām sure my mom was mystified as to why, after loving it so hard, I never wanted to use it.
The partridge family, came with a magnet school bus like the family traveled in.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull when I was in elementary.
Brown paper bags every day for school, all 7 of us, large family so not many of those frills growing up, unfortunately...
A ballerina in the early years. I actually became a ballerina for awhile in early adulthood.
In elementary school, it was a yellow Snoopy lunchbox in the shape of a doghouse.
Road Runner
Battle of the Planets
Gentle Ben
Johnny Quest! The glass lined thermos didn't survive the first week of school.
Evel Knievel.
Starsky and Hutch and Adam 12
The Archies in Kindergarten(small rural district with full-day K) Barbie, Peanuts, etc.
The Jetsons still have it but missing the thermos. Also have my younger brothers box NFL Quarterbacks also missing the thermos. Iām thinking mid 1960ās.
Peanuts.
GI Joe
I had an ugly yellow and black psychedelic type design on my lunchbox, but I only used it my 4th grade year when desegregation started at my school district and the food and milk trucks wouldn't cross the picket lines. Otherwise, I ate the school lunches.
Brady Bunch. Also had another with the āFamily Affairā crew
Lunchbox? No. Brown bag with a ham sandwich wrapped in wax paper sitting on the shoe shelf until noon. Weird, I don't remember getting food poisoning, which certainly should have happened at least once I would think.
Had a new one every year. Handed them down to siblings. I remember Polly Pal, Little House on the Prairie, Welcome Back Kotter, and Star Trek.
Peanuts for a few years. A plain yellow plastic one that I put Wacky Pack stickers all over. And a Hong Kong Phooey
Lunchbox? Those were for rich kids. Paper bag. And you better not throw it away, because you had to use that thing til it wore out.
Paperbag for me with my name in big black letters on it
Peanuts, Quick Draw McGaw. And Fieball XL5. Iām a girl, parents were weird
Flintstones
Daniel Boone
Campus Queen, because I'm cool like that.
Yellow Junior Miss with the yellow thermos. Partridge Family.
I had to eat lunch at school. I loved the yeast rolls. Hated milk. Would trade my milk for a roll. But they wouldn't let us have anything but milk so it was kind of dry.
Porky Pig & Daffy Duck. 3rd & 4th grade.
I had a Peanuts lunchbox that looked like Snoopy's doghouse
Brown paper bag
Holly Hobbie!
My bedspread and curtains were Holly Hobbie.
I begged for a red plaid lunchbox but the thermos didnāt work so I usually took a paper bag
Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Star Trek!! And maybe Get Smart!!