Lunch Box Museum

We took a short day trip to Columbus, GA to visit the Lunch Box Museum this week.

It all started when we found the book Lunchbox Inside Out  while at the library a few weeks ago.  We were looking up general information about vintage lunchboxes and happen to discover that the Lunch Box Museum was just a few hours away.

Whoa!

 I would guess there are a thousand or more lunch boxes on display. Made from metal, vinyl, and plastic.

 There are thermoses lining the edges of the room and accompanying the shelves. There is also a large number of metal TV trays resting on old theater seats. 

Nearly every lunch box shown in the Lunch Box book is here...along with about 5 or more duplicates.

There is an area in the front of the museum where duplicates are for sale, at collector prices though.  The best thing is that all of the boxes can be touched and opened.

I really liked this Ghost Land lunch box from 1977.  It has a game on the back with a little spinner. 

 Funny!

 Cute tiny vintage Fisher Price lunch box.

The Addams Family

circa 1974 

 This Space Cadet box from 1952 had a neat surprise inside:

 A place to write the owner's name, and on a cute, clever space ship.

 There are a few metal sheets of printed designs for the lunch box and thermos, unused hanging on the walls.

 Universal Monsters

Circa 1979

 Snoopy

Circa 1980

 Roy Rogers and Dale Evans

circa 1957

There are a few of the first ever embellished lunch boxes depicting Hopalong Cassidy circa 1950 along with the last (of the heyday of metal lunchboxes) from 1987 depicting Rambo.  Along with everything else in between....  Star Wars, HeHaw, Kung Fu, Welcome Back Kotter, Planet of the Apes, Disney movies and cartoons, Dick Tracy, Smurfs, Atom Ant, Huckleberry Hound, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Beany and Cecil, Underdog, The Dukes of Hazzard...and more...much more.

This place was super cool and we would have spent hours here if it wasn't for the fact that there is no air conditioning, no fan, no breeze of any sort and it's the middle of July.

Only 5 bucks for folks over 10 years of age, 10 and below are free.

A few years ago we went to a very neat Lunch Box Display from the Smithsonian that toured through Art Museums and came to our town.

Lastly, to cover all bases, we found a mini lunchbox at the museum promoting the book Lunchbox!

Day Trip!

 We took a day trip this week to Columbus, GA.  We spotted this Folk Art Hearse!

 Cute little E.T. 

 "Don't mess with my Toot Toot". 

 That dry rotted thing in the middle of the window is a set of foam butt checks with underwear.

 Critters made from a mail box, suitcase, plastic tackle box, and other metal debris.

The cutest one! 

Quick Panocha

 One of PB and my summer projects is to make a few recipes from our 1955 version of Better Homes and Gardens Junior Cook Book. Check out our other past recipes: peanut goodies and cherry tartlets.

We picked something out that we had all the ingredients on hand and it happened to be something we had never eaten before...Panocha.

These things are deliciously sicking sweet. I am warning you to limit yourself to only eating 3 at one sitting....no more!  You will want to eat the whole pan but you will then risk hyperglycemia. 

Super Boy Pumkinbutt Olsen

For the past several months Pumkinbutt has started buying and collecting vintage comics.  I can't help but feel a bit proud of him and know that it has been inspired by the "museum", as our house has been called before.  PB has started several businesses to raise his comic book money. His main venture is called Killer Spa, a foot and back rub service with zombies on the logo.  He spends a lot of time researching comics when he is not pitching me his zombie foot rub benefits (20% off on the weekends).  He checks out books from the library about vintage comic book collecting along with looking up information on the internet.  His main interest is Action Comics and Superman.  We also have been watching the 1950's Adventures of Superman, (checked out from the library also).  PB thinks that Jimmy Olsen is super cool.

 We wrote a letter to Jack Larson (who played Jimmy Olsen in the Adventures of Superman) secretly without PB knowing and guess what?  He wrote him back!

 Here he is showing off the note while wearing the Superman shirt he made himself and his "Clark Kent" glasses.  FYI, those 3D movie glasses with the lens popped out are great for kid dress up.

I made him a pair of sleep shorts from vintage inspired Superman and Action Comic book fabric.

I made them from the vintage Simplicity pattern seen below. I haven't worked with a lot of patterns, much less vintage ones.  The instructions for these shorts were no help.  I guess it was common knowledge back then how to put bottoms together.  Luckily I had held on to a newer PJ pattern (from when PB was littler)  to have directions to refer to as a refresher.  I found the fabric locally by chance, and half off!  Equilter has a small amount left with a blue background.

Our summer adventures continue!

Packaging love

I know I have mentioned a time or two how much I love vintage product packaging. The packages seen above may look as if they are vintage but not so!  These are available on grocery stores shelves today!  I love finding new packaging that has not changed for decades.  These are a few that I have found over the years/months. I am a sucker for products with cute graphics but if it's a food I hate, it can sit it's self on the grocery shelf.  No beets, no pork brains... thank you very much.  (Yes, I have found canned pork brains in a store before.) Here is a bit of info on some of these packages.  Many have somewhat functioning websites and history on the company:

The Allen's  canned goods have a wonderful look to them!  Their graphics, design, fonts and colors are the best! I found this one at a gas station/convenience store. And no, it's not expired! But next month it will be. Looks like it's squash for dinner!

Also made by The Allen's canned goods is this cutie! Sugary Sam Sweet Potatoes.  I hate sweet potatoes so I have resisted the urge to buy this can but I have seen it in several local small grocery stores and Big Lots. I think that star seen after the word POTATOES is a disclaimer that says "tastes like ass" or either "PO-TAY-TOES".

Jiffy, Jiffy, Jiffy!!  Let me count the ways I love you!  I have used Jiffy in so many recipes, here are just a couple: The best ever strawberry short cakes and cherry tartlets. Food staples in every home should include at least the multi use mix, pie crust, and corn muffin mix. BTW, you can request a FREE jiffy cookbook on their site.

Another recent find was Del-Dixi pickles. This brand was bought by the Best Maid food company (since 1926) in the early 1960's.

We bought these pickles for one reason alone....this cute little girl graphic that is on the lid...and, well, we happened to be out of pickles. Best Maid sells pickle juice by the gallon on their website, in case you need any... I know I do! Pickle-sicles! Yum!

And taking it a step beyond just eating the food and putting the packaging up on a shelf, there are fun ways to craft with these cute containers!  As seen with my retro crafty memo pad made from a Jiffy box. Wallpapering a kitchen with Jiffy box fronts would be cute!  The lid from the Del-Dixi pickles would made a fun fridge magnet.
In the book Found, Free, and Flea  (see last post) there are a couple of ideas to repurpose vintage packaging:

Wallpapering in Jiffy boxes... That is such a good idea... I need to go eat some pie crust wrapped corn muffins...and squash right now.

Found, Free and Flea

PB and I spend a lot of time at the library during the summer.  I have found several neat books that I thought I would share through a series of different posts.  Found, Free, and Flea by Tereasa Surratt (view the trailer, it's really cute! shows some before and after shots.) is one of my favorite books I have checked out.  Backstory is:

When Tereasa Surratt’s husband convinced her that they should buy a derelict summer camp in Wisconsin, they had no idea the treasure trove they’d inherit with the property. While renovating the decrepit cabins at Camp Wandawega, they kept stumbling upon curious objects, some dating back ninety years or more: a Boy Scout patch, an old sled, a pristine set of Fiesta Ware, dozens of midcentury aprons, an untouched box of board games in their original packaging. 

Tereasa knew the power that one mundane object has when grouped with its siblings. So rather than discard everything, she set out on a five-year expedition to turn the more than 150 found items into full-fledged collections. Relying on her own thriftiness, she only acquired pieces for free or at a bargain price: items that she found, negotiated for free, or unearthed at a flea market. 

The whole story about Camp Wandawega is so intriguing.  It was originally built in 1926 as an answer to Prohibition as a speakeasy but fronted as a hotel.  Through the end of the 1920's it was home to organized crime with multiple exits and trap doors while it continued to distribute liquor, guns and gambling. Into the 30's it became a brothel.  The 1950's finally brought it more into it's function it holds now as being a legit family campground. The Catholic church bought it in the 1960's and ran it as a church camp into the 1970's.

I can not describe how excited I would be to have this kind of a vintage and historical building discovery adventure such as these folks had.  The book it's self is a wonderful mixture of collections, stories, history and craft repurpose ideas.

The owners stumbled on bundles of old postcards and letters.  They tuck them inside dresser drawers and night stands for campers to have their own discoveries.

Here are a few images of finished cabins/hotel with vintage items recovered from the camp's past:

 I love this kitchen!

 Super cool story behind this fiesta ware. They discovered it covered and walled in, still on shelves.

 Another view of the cute kitchen.

I think this is a general use sitting area at the camp. Lovely!

Unfortunately, I don't think I will ever make it up to Camp Wandawega (16 hours away).  But if you live anywhere near Elkhorn, Wisconsin this place is a must to visit. Check out the website in the meantime, it has a "Tour" area with more gorgeous photos of the entire site.  

Thrift Stuff

A few items we picked up at the thrift yesterday.

 Mirro Cooky and Pastry Press

I already have a cookie press so why pick up another? Because it has attachments to make lady fingers, eclairs, and cream puffs! It also came with a handy wooden organizing rack!

Family Affair Fun Box

My scope of interest does not include much 1970's, so when I first saw this Family Affair Fun Box I was just excited by the cute graphics and intrigued by the cardboard stitching card sporting a creepy granny doll wearing glasses. I didn't really put it together that it was a television show until looking through the included coloring book.  I have never seen the show so I am going to pretend that the doll, "Mrs. Beasley", comes to life every episode and kills people, leaving the "Family Affair" being to cover the tracks of her murderous exploits. 

Scotch Kooler Ice Chest and Thermos

I was really excited when I came across this ice chest!  I have seen it many times in vintage cookbooks with happy families gathered around admiring it's chilling capabilities!  This one came with the clear plastic tray insert as seen below in the ad. The thermos is from 1971.  I like the spoon and fork modern graphic, more of a 1960's inspiration.  The brown and yellow color is an introduction of more to come from the 1970's. 

The underside of the kooler lid:

Here are a few vintage ads featuring the Kooler in action:

Even Bob Hope approves!

Here is a bit of history about the kooler. I love when a thrift store trip turns into a learning experience:

 In 1951, Hamilton Metal Products hired New York designer Petra Cabot to create a cylindrical cooler and launch a line of products that rolled out of Hamilton until 1970.

From 1938 until 1950, Cabot had worked for the designer Russel Wright, who helped bring modernist design to mass-produced home products. She also gained some fame as a painter and part of a vibrant arts scene in Woodstock, N.Y.

With a distinctive red, black and yellow plaid -- based on the traditional tartan of the Bodie clan -- the Skotch Kooler and related products were indispensable items for several generations of picnickers.

"I decided to make the best-looking bucket anybody ever saw," Cabot once said, according to her New York Times obituary.

The container held four gallons and had three layers of insulation: one of fiberglass, one of inert air and a heat-reflecting outer surface. Knockoff versions without the signature were made as far away as Thailand, and Hamilton Metal Products created variations on the structure but without the distinctive plaid.

Long before the era of celebrity designers, part of Cabot's deal with Hamilton Metal Products was that her name would appear on every item, which eventually included charcoal grills, insulated drink jugs, reusable ice cans and other leisure items.

Cabot died on Oct. 13, 2006 at her home in Woodstock, N.Y., at age 99.

But her design lives on, a cool icon of mid-century America.

Father's Day Trophy

 Another thing PB and I are doing this summer is having a thrift store day together each week.  He isn't a big fan generally so I am trying to instill an appreciation in him through repeated exposure....and indulging him in buying things I would never choose (VHS tape of Star Wars Episode I). Yesterday we stumbled upon a treasure trove of old trophies.  The plaques had been removed so unfortunately we don't know the reason why they were awarded.  We bought several of them to transform into specific awards and embellished to represent the accomplishment and the receiver's interests.

First up is one for his dad for Father's Day!  

 PB wrote the plaques, colored the super guy a costume with permanent markers and made the chest piece. He also picked out one of his own toy cars to add to the trophy.  I just contributed a few small details like dice buttons/bead and cut a red felt cape.

 I could have printed out the plaques but thought PB's handwriting would be more special.

PB's dad is really big into the kustom car culture and sci-fi stuff so we know he is going to love this!