My 1966 Munsters Lunchbox

Every year, when it came time to buy school supplies, I'd beg my mom to get me a lunchbox. To me, this was the epitome of grade-school personality, a public comment of what a kid liked - as important as choosing your three-ring notebook binder or Halloween costume. It represented an essential of back-to-school accompaniment - and one that, year after year, I lacked.

Every year, on the top shelf out of reach, was the offering of that year's pop-culture displayed in the form of lunchboxes. All of the most popular Saturday morning cartoons and TV shows were highlighted on those shiny metal boxes.

Every year, I was told the same thing by my mom.

"I have a lunchbox you can use. You don't need one".

Photo taken myself. Copyright 2013 G.K.

Yeah, right. This was my mom's lunchbox. Red plaid, plastic, and not even a box! Grade school uncool!

Every day, the class was divided into two lines, hot lunches to one side, brought-from-home lunches in the other. Every day my teacher would hand me my ticket to be punched by the lunch lady after getting my tray of food. The kids who brought their lunches would already be eating.

I'd look for the umpteenth time at that day's neighbor-at-the-table's lunchbox, asking for a peek at the side, bottom or top panels. With a metallic clunk they'd open up their metal treasure box and pull out the mandatory sandwich and usually a bag of chips and cookies, maybe a bit of fruit. Sometimes there was even soup in the thermos. Of course, back then I didn't realize how sick they probably got of daily bologna or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

I rarely took my lunch to school unless it was a special picnic or zoo day. It seems fairly rare those trips weren't rained out, so we'd sit inside at our desks on those rainy days, and I'd pull out that ugly old red plaid oval lunchbox and (sigh) unzip it. Although it was still a treat to bring my picnic lunch from home, and my mom went all out, it wasn't without a few snickers and comments from the other kids.

My sister was six years younger than me, and by the time I was in junior high, she'd gotten a lunchbox for grade school.

"Oh mother dearest," I asked, "What happened to, 'you don't need a lunchbox, I already have one'?"

My mom made a wry face.

"Oh that old thing? I got rid of it. It was kind of ugly".

As an adult, I occasionally saw lunchboxes in antique or vintage shops, or Salvation Army or Goodwill stores, but they were usually either really old, like John Wayne or the Lone Ranger, or ones I wasn't interested in, like Raggedy Ann or My Little Pony.

Then, along came ... e-Bay!

Suddenly everything you'd ever had in your life, or anything you could remember, was findable on e-bay. The first thing I ever bought on e-Bay was a set of glass Aunt Jemima syrup bottles (they'd long gone to plastic). Soon followed games I'd loved, like Which Witch?

But it was inevitable. I eventually began browsing the lunchboxes - and years of my classmates' lunchboxes were suddenly right there for the first time in decades.

It was fun and nostalgic, looking back on them all.

The past was, after all, the past, and the time for lunchboxes long gone, I was an adult after all and had moved on ....

I'd discovered "The Munsters" lunchbox on e-Bay a few years ago, and it stayed in the back of my mind, lurking. I don't buy many things on a whim. Finally, before my (ahem) th birthday, I decided to go for it!

It took a few weeks before I found a Munsters lunchbox in pretty good shape. Some of the more affordable were fairly rusted or scratched up. Finally, I set my sights on one and went for it ... and lost .

On my second attempt I watched as the price went higher and higher but I got it at the last moment.

Victory!

But ...

What's a lunchbox without the matching thermos?

So, back to e-Bay!

I don't want to say how much I ended up paying for both. To most folks, it was probably too much for something they tossed in the trash or donated decades ago. But others will understand how much a piece of your childhood is worth,

(O.K., so The Munsters lunchbox and TV show were a little before my time, but it's what I liked).

Photo taken myself. Copyright 2013 G.K.

Although they were in reruns probably several times over by the time I "discovered" the show one day after school, I fell in love with the Munster family - quirky Grandpa and well-meaning Herman, Lily the "typical" wise housewife and mother, their young son, Eddie and poor Marilyn.

To this day, if I find The Munsters on TV, odds are, I'll turn the channel to watch it.

I Could Finally Imagine What It Would Have Been Like.

You can't go back in time. Besides, you can't get back what you never had and it isn't going to be the same even if you could now.

My kids had plastic lunchboxes available to them (I recently found out it was because our prized metal lunchboxes were ruled "lethal weapons" in 1986!), cheap printed designs only on the front and back. Today's kids have only the Igloo brand or "cooler" style lunchboxes. None of them know the joy of the hunt for those beautiful, colorful, crisp and raised pictures of the old metal lunchboxes.

But every time I look over onto the shelf, and see my Munster's lunchbox, it momentarily takes me back, and I imagine opening it up with anticipation as to what was in it for the day, it cheers me up and makes me smile.

And you can't put a price on that.

Photo taken myself. Copyright 2013 G.K.

Did you pick it out?

Did you keep it?

Have you seen how much it's worth now on e-Bay?