Lunchbox legends.Byline: Jeff Wright Jeff Wright can refer to:
Tim Long Tim Long is a writer on The Simpsons. He has also written for Politically Incorrect and The Late Show with David Letterman. The Simpsons episodes He has written the following episodes:
v. Third person singular present tense of pry1. n. Plural of pry1. it from his cold, dead fingers. Long, 45, owns Eugene Jeans, a vintage and retro store in downtown Eugene that's home to more than 70 vintage lunchboxes. Most of them - including Long's coveted cov·et v. cov·et·ed, cov·et·ing, cov·ets v.tr. 1. To feel blameworthy desire for (that which is another's). See Synonyms at envy. 2. To wish for longingly. See Synonyms at desire. Rifleman - are for display only, however. "People are always coming in, looking on every side for a price tag and then asking how much," Long said. "And then I have to break the bad news to them." With the start of a new school year, PB&J sandwiches are finding themselves lodged inside hundreds of first-, third- and fifth-graders' lunchboxes. This year's most popular models include Spiderman, Harry Potter and Shrek 2. But lunchboxes these days are an intergenerational in·ter·gen·er·a·tion·al adj. Being or occurring between generations: "These social-insurance programs are intergenerational and all commodity. It's hard to find a baby boomer baby boomer also ba·by-boom·er n. A member of a baby-boom generation. Noun 1. baby boomer - a member of the baby boom generation in the 1950s; "they expanded the schools for a generation of baby boomers" boomer who doesn't remember - or maybe even still owns - his or her first school lunchbox. Nostalgia runs deep. How else do you explain the 20 or so vintage lunchboxes and Thermos bottles dangling from the ceiling at Trader Joe's Trader Joe's is a privately held chain of specialty grocery stores headquartered in Monrovia, California. As of September 2007, Trader Joe's has a total of 284 stores.[1] on Coburg Road in Eugene? The store display consists of its employees' own lunchboxes and is the brainchild of Michelle Weber, 40, who still cherishes several lunchboxes from her childhood. "I just couldn't get rid of them," she said. "There's such a wash of memories when you open one up and smell - that blend of peanut butter and jelly, plastic bags and milk." Not to mention the memories associated with the TV, movie and cartoon characters that adorn the outsides. At Trader Joe's, for example, the "Schoolhouse Rock" and "The Waltons" lunchboxes both belong to Weber. Co-worker Annie Herzog contributed the Smurfs and Batman lunchboxes - but felt pulled to the past when she spotted the display's Garfield lunchbox. "It made me want to get some vegetable soup," said Herzog, 26, who owned a Garfield box as a kid. "I hated sandwiches so my mom would make vegetable soup at 4:30 in the morning and put it in my Thermos. And it kept it warm." School lunchboxes saw their heyday in the '50s and '60s, when about 120 million were sold. Lunchboxes began to lose some of their cachet cachet /ca·chet/ (ka-sha´) a disk-shaped wafer or capsule enclosing a dose of medicine. ca·chet n. An edible wafer capsule used for enclosing an unpleasant-tasting drug. in the '70s, while in more recent years the growth of government-sponsored, reduced-price hot lunches has cut into sales. The biggest sellers these days tend to be tied to a year's biggest-grossing movies, said Mike Dobbs, a vice president at Lunchboxes.com, an online company based in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. . A few models - Scooby Doo, Pokemon and Strawberry Shortcake
Strawberry Shortcake is a licensed character owned by American Greetings, originally used in greeting cards and expanded to include dolls, posters, and other products. , for example - do well year after year. The company offers more than 140 styles, including such surprising icons as Kurt Cobain, Vince Lombardi and the Sex Pistols. Fewer than half of today's lunchboxes include Thermos bottles, Dobbs said, in part because many parents prefer to pack juice boxes instead. At Gateway Mall's Target store in Springfield, team leader Tyler Shoun said lunchboxes with water bottles have sold well, especially among the middle-school set. Younger girls still favor Bratz (a popular doll) and a Disney Princesses box with Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty Sleeping Beauty sleeps for 100 years. [Fr. Fairy Tale, The Sleeping Beauty] See : Enchantment Sleeping Beauty enchanted heroine awakened from century of slumber by prince’s kiss. , Belle and all the rest. Boys still appear to like dinosaurs and athletes. Among the few lunchbox characters not moving well at Target: Barbie and the Incredible Hulk. At Eugene Jeans, Long said his collection grew when he and his wife, Barbara, engaged in a long battle of oneupsmanship, taking turns coming home from a garage sale or antique store with yet another vintage lunchbox. "All of a sudden we had 15, and then over 70," he said. His prized Rifleman lunchbox celebrates the old Western TV show of the same name starring Chuck Connors Chuck Connors (April 10 1921 – November 10 1992) was an American actor and professional basketball and baseball player. Biography Early life Connors was born Kevin Joseph Aloysius Connors . Long also owns a more obscure lunchbox that features Connors as "The Cowboy in Africa Cowboy in Africa is a television series produced in 1967-68 by Ivan Tors and starring Chuck Connors. The title explains it all : it is the story of cowboy Jim Sinclair (Connors) who is hired to introduce the Texas methods to a ranch in Kenya. 26 episodes were shot. ." Long regrets that he never saved his own lunchbox from first grade - "The Man from U.N.C.L.E" - and for good reason. He recently came across just such a box at a local antique store with a price of $325. That was too steep for Long, though the price is in line with what other vintage lunchboxes can fetch on Lunchboxes.com and elsewhere. With four kids between the ages of 6 and 13, Long would seem to have ample excuse to stock up on lunchboxes. But, in fact, he can't blame the kids for his collection-mania. "They don't use lunchboxes," he said. SCHOOL LUNCHBOX HISTORY 1880s: School kids create lunch pails out of colorful tin boxes originally used for biscuits, cookies and tobacco. 1902: First lunchbox for school kids shaped like picnic basket A picnic basket is a basket or other container intended to hold food and tableware for a picnic meal. The term usually refers to the contents of the container as well as the container itself. with pictures of playing children lithographed on side. 1935: Mickey Mouse shows up on lunchbox. 1950: Aladdin Co. introduces "Hoppy" lunchbox depicting Hopalong Cassidy, sells 600,000 in first year at $2.39 each. 1952: Aladdin's "Tom Corbin, Space Cadet" breaks Hopalong's sales record. 1953: Roy Rogers, miffed miff n. 1. A petulant, bad-tempered mood; a huff. 2. A petty quarrel or argument; a tiff. tr.v. miffed, miff·ing, miffs To cause to become offended or annoyed. that Aladdin won't put him on lunchbox, goes to competitor American Thermos; sale of Roy Rogers & Dale Evans lunchboxes reaches 2.5 million. 1957: Aladdin adapts workingman's traditional "dome" lunchbox for school kids, using "Buccaneer buccaneer: see piracy. buccaneer Any of the British, French, or Dutch sea adventurers who chiefly haunted the Caribbean and the Pacific seaboard of South America during the latter part of the 17th century, preying on Spanish settlements and shipping. " theme to capitalize on pirate craze spurred by Peter Pan, other movies. Disney Schoolbus dome lunchbox later becomes all-time biggest seller at 9 million. 1962: Aladdin adds new trademark feature, stamping designs into metal to give a bas relief, 3-D effect. Vinyl lunchboxes also debut, but are short-lived because of poor durability. 1972: Beginning of the end: Sales drop as kids move to other status symbols, manufacturers switch to inferior plastic molding, legislators ban metal as dangerous assault weapon. 1982: Last metal lunchbox depicts Rambo (before vintage metal lunchboxes make comeback in 1990s). - Whole Pop magazine, Lunchboxes.com HOW MUCH IS THAT LUNCHBOX? Vintage tins in top condition can bring in the money. Spice Girls plastic (1997): $165 Hulk Hogan WWF See Windows Workflow Foundation. (1986): $125 Masters of the Universe (1983): $265 Ronald McDonald (1982): $225 Clash of the Titans (1981): $335 Star Wars (1977): $335 Marvel Super Heroes Marvel Super Heroes is a term generally referring to superheroes owned and published by Marvel Comics (see list of Marvel Comics characters). It is also the name of several specific products and publications:
Pele (1975): $385 Stars & Stripes dome (1970): $325 Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck (1954): $535 - Lunchboxes.com KIDS' TOP 10 REASONS TO HAVE A LUNCHBOX 10. Mom bought it for me 9. You can grip a solid handle 8. My friends like it 7. Now everyone wants to eat with me 6. It proves my parents care about me 5. PB&J sandwiches taste better straight from the lunchbox 4. My lunch doesn't get squashed 3. My lunchbox could become valuable some day 2. Everyone else wants my lunchbox 1. I don't like brown bags CAPTION(S): Tim Long holds his favorite lunchbox featuring "The Rifleman," a show he says he ran home from kindergarten every afternoon to watch on television. Long's shop, Eugene Jeans, is decorated with a collection of vintage lunchboxes. "There's such a wash of memories when you open one up and smell - that blend of peanut butter and jelly, plastic bags and milk." - MICHELLE WEBER TITLE OR SUPLEMENTARY INFO HERE |
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