Your Lunch Box May Be a Collectible

Your Lunch Box May Be a Collectible

By Mary Emma Allen
Lunch boxes come in all shapes and sizes nowadays and are made from a variety of materials, so different from the metal lunch boxes of my childhood. My grandchildren have plastic, cloth or canvas ones. My uncle carried the large black laborers' type with rounded top. My grandfather took lunch in a small metal box (which I still have) when he worked in the woodlot in the early 1900s.

Lunch Box Collectibles

Many lunch boxes have become collectibles nowadays, especially the metal ones made before the 1980s when they were discontinued in favor of plastic. Numerous lunch boxes centered around Saturday morning TV themes so are the height of nostalgia.

Thermos bottles, too, are included as collectibles. The lunch box is considered more valuable if it comes with matching thermos. However, most collectors will accumulate them separately.

Bring Back Memories

As you look at lunch boxes, either in pictures, in collections and displays, or in flea markets, most people are captivated by those that bring back memories of their own childhood. The designs catching your attention will be those found on the lunch boxes you and your friends used.

Lunch Box Types

What are some of the memorable lunch boxes collectors seek or bring back memories?

Think of Superman, Howdy Doody, G.I. Joe, Batman, the Jetsons, Dick Tracy, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Trigger, Robin Hood, Flipper, Space Cadet, Snow White, Barbie, Twiggy, Peanuts, and many more.

Related Lunch Box Collectibles

Among the lunch box collectibles you'll encounter blueprints for boxes and thermoses, cardboard store displays, catalog pages, proof sheets, comic strips showing characters carrying lunch boxes, and pamphlets of recipes for lunch box menus.

(c)2001 Mary Emma Allen

About the Author

Mary Emma Allen has been writing columns on cooking and nostalgia for more than 30 years for a variety of publications. Visit her web site for more information about her columns and books at http://homepage.fcgnetworks.net/jetent/mea.

About The Author

Mary Emma Allen researches and writes from her multi-generational NH home. Check out her new site, Tea Time Notes
 
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