I can still hear the rattling.

I was kinda disappointed to discover that lunchboxes were no longer metal when it came time to buy them for my own kids.

Steak, sweet corn & salad everyday. Lol

Watched Bozo Circus to the end, then had to run to school. Couldn't miss the Grand Prize Game. Lol

television

Nobody else brought one either. We just marched out to a concrete-block building that served as the school’s kitchen & cafeteria. All seasons, walking a good 500 ft through whatever Mother Nature had in store that day. In retrospect, I don’t remember anyone even bringing up the subject of bringing a lunch. Same in high school, where the tradition continued and everyone ate in the cafeteria. My last two years, some of us would occasionally pile into a vehicle and head for the nearest restaurant for burgers & fries. In the days before fast food outlets proliferated like dandelions, this mostly involved a bit of a wait. We’d wolf down our chow on the way back to school, hoping we would beat the buzzer.

I was aware that kid-themed lunch boxes existed, but I don’t remember feeling envy or deprivation. I did admire some I saw - Star Trek, The Beatles, what have you.

With Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Porkey Pig, Tweety, Sylvester, et all.

a rush , a grabbed a brown paper bag from the counter. Got to lunch. I had taken the wrong lunch, I had a bag of crayons.

uphill, both ways, through snow drifts up to my ears.

Yum! 😋

Mix of apple and stale milk from the leaky thermos.

day's lunch in it. I know what you mean by the smell. Yuk

Still have it!

Probably one of the many things my mother threw away that would have been worth some money as a collector’s item now.

Around 4th grade lunch boxes weren’t cool any more so out came the brown paper bags.

Sometimes I came home for lunch in elementary school. I practically never bought a lunch from the school cafeteria because I was a picky eater.

or eat at home. Lunch was a dime at school.

on edit: visual history of the lunch box.

https://designobserver.com/a-visual-history-of-lunchboxes/

IIRC, the thermos lasted about one week before I broke it.

-- Mal

It also had a matching thermos.
Good memories.

Like this:

Went to work in woods age 16 in 1969. Had not used the lunch box since 6th grade and put back to use. My mother gave away to her friend that had a daughter in grade school and bought me a gray plastic lunch box and a metal Stanley thermos, said a working man should have an adult lunchbox. The glass thermos that came with the box did not last long. Miss that lunch box.

So I appreciate helping me remember.

I really liked it...

"Here I come to save the day!"
Ha. I'm old.
I also remember the little glass bottle of milk with the paper cap, from a first grade cafeteria.

(I guess, because among other things, I was a girl) that I never took it to school again.

I wish I would've been strong enough to say "Fuck you. This is my lunch box and I like it" but I wasn't.

loved to have your lunch box. Please don't cry. You are loved here.

You are very kind. I revised my post somewhat because I think I had the Bonanza lunch box before I went to the school where I was bullied. But the other kids did make fun of it and I never took it to school again.