Face on a lunch box

Davy Jones, 1945-2012

I was saddened to hear that Davy Jones, lead singer of the teen idol band The Monkees had passed away this morning at the age of 66.  Thinking about The Monkees brings back a personal recollection for me.  I had their faces for company every day at lunch time when I was in grade 2 back in 1968-69.  Our grade 2 class was so big from the last batch of baby boomers that some of us had to be bussed to the next town where they had a smaller enrollment.  I wasn't all that familiar with The Monkees as our tiny town only had one channel - CBC, which didn't carry their TV show.  So when it came time to pick a lunch box, I think it was The Beatles one I really wanted -- but it sold out!

I remembered my lunch kit as a sky blue colour but the only ones I could find a picture of were white.  I was fairly sure it wasn't white so I kept looking and BINGO! I found it.  Apparently only the ones manufactured in Canada were blue.  You will never guess how much it would be worth today (had I kept it in mint condition-- yeah right!)  One just sold recently for $374.00!

Here are some other examples.  

Did anyone have one of these?

Come to think of it, I don't remember my thermos looking like that blue and white one. I think mine was like the red capped one on the far right?  So far my memory has served me well.  Too bad I can't find an exact match, but nevermind.

This started out to be a post about Davy Jones and The Monkees, but since I really don't know much more than that this was one of my older sister's records, it is now about my lunch box and about me in Grade Two.  I remember the principal used to oversee our lunchroom, which was upstairs in one of the older kids' classrooms.  All the other kids went home for lunch as we were the only bus students.  No one ate lunch at school in those days.  There were very few working mothers.  I had a working mother.  She didn't work because we needed the money.  She was a career woman type who married late and wanted her own spending money.   If the moms were working, there were older siblings, or fathers, aunts, grandparents or neighbours that could be counted on to look after the children during the lunch hour.  Nowadays hardly anyone ever goes home for lunch. Nobody is home.  Our school had to start offering lunch time supervision because otherwise we kept losing students to the Catholic school which did have it.

Back to my lunch room.  This principal  was a short, older woman with her hair in a severe bun at the back of her head.  She was very no nonsense, strict and taciturn.  We had to be very quiet while eating or it was bad for our digestion.  There were rules about the order of eating things.  She monitored everything.  I remember I got heck once for not peeling an orange properly.  We all had to stop and watch one certain student peel her orange as she was doing it in the prescribed manner!

But not everything was bad at that school.  I liked my teacher, I always enjoyed school anyway, and recess was especially fun because I got to hang out with some new kids for a change.  I also met my future husband at that school!  We were in a split grade, and he was one of the grade three boys in our class.  I barely remember him as he was very quiet.  He says he remembers me singing at recess to "Que Sera, Sera".  I had forgotten I used to sing that!  I remember I loved singing on the bus ride home. Usually I would be singing Julie Andrews songs, like "My Favourite Things" and "Do Re Mi" but also "Just a Spoonful of Sugar" and Supercalifragilistikexpialidocious"!

Now that I'm a grown up career lady (that's a matter of opinion), I've been thinking I should treat my lunch with a bit more respect.  I've been bringing it in a shopping bag for years and I'm getting pretty tired of that.  Perhaps I need something more like this to make my lunch time more interesting...

Davy Jones, I tip my thermos to you for your inspiration!

How about it?  Does anybody else want to design an RA lunch box?  Send me your designs and I will display them here!  Who knows, maybe someday we will see some in the stores?