In the 1970’s kid’s lunches were both interesting and exciting and sometimes came in themed metal lunchboxes that featured popular TV shows and movies. With mom’s keeping things interesting, their creativity showed in combination with the packaged snacks (that were so popular at the time) that would definetly be considered a classic today. Let’s take a look into the past to see some of the regular things that would be in a kid’s lunchbox.
Table of Contents
- 1 1. Thermos of Campbell’s Soup
- 2 2. Twinkies
- 3 3. PB&J on Wonder Bread
- 4 4. Fruit Roll-Ups
- 5 5. Chips in Wax Paper Bags
- 6 6. Tab or Shasta in a Steel Can
- 7 7. Hostess Ding Dongs
- 8 8. Space Food Sticks
- 9 9. Plastic Baggie of Bugles
- 10 10. Bologna Sandwich with Yellow Mustard
- 11 11. Celery with Peanut Butter
- 12 12. Little Debbie Snack Cakes
1. Thermos of Campbell’s Soup
Those sturdy metal lunchbox thermos kept soups like chicken noodle and tomato warm until lunch. Of course we all know the trick to opening the thermos without a huge vacuum pop. When lunch rolled around, soup everywhereaaaa.
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2. Twinkies
Twinkies were so good that in some families trading lunches was banned. The individually packaged snack cakes were perfect for the lunchboxes and to top it off they were individually wrapped, however most likely by lunch time they would be all squished.
3. PB&J on Wonder Bread
Before you could have a lunch at school you first had to taste the squishy goodness of a white bread sandwich. Wonder bread was the most popular because of how good it was to form into a tiny ball. This practice would get kids in trouble at school and all their bread would end up being squished into balls. Of course you had to wash the sticky feeling of the peanuts from the peanute butter off your mouth with milk.
4. Fruit Roll-Ups
When they hit store shelves in the mid-’70s, the sweet snack quickly skyrocketed in popularity. Kids would compete to see who could unroll the leather strips the fastest without tearing them, and some would even use them as “tongue tattoos.” Kids quickly learned that unpeeling the backing was more difficult than unrolling the fruit roll.
5. Chips in Wax Paper Bags
Before there were individual serving bags, moms would give their kids paper-wrapped bags of chips. The bags would end up crushed to the point of being filled only with crumbs, but nothing could stop us from enjoying the chips. Lay’s and Ruffle’s were the targets of our trading with BBQ flavor being the favorite.
6. Tab or Shasta in a Steel Can
Having a beverage in a steel can was a status symbol. That meant you could give your soda a church-key punctured triangular drinking hole. Though the drink would be warm and flat by lunch, the sound of the steeld can opening would attract the attention of everyone around.
7. Hostess Ding Dongs
Lunchroom trading was all about wrapped chocolate bars. Those got us covered in chocolate, and losing one before lunch was a true tragedy. Before we could even think about lunch, we had to get creative with our wrappers and save them for art instead of trash.
8. Space Food Sticks
Because they were marketed as astronaut food, they seemed even cooler! Although they were not sticky, they were tough to eat and would often get stuck in your teeth as kids pretended to be astronauts.
9. Plastic Baggie of Bugles
When the corn snacks got put on the fingertips, they turned into witch fingers. Everyone did this before eating the snacks, annoying the lunch monitors. The salty snacks were great for trading, and usually, the snacks made it to school without getting crushed.
10. Bologna Sandwich with Yellow Mustard
A lunchbox classic was a bologna sandwich with yellow mustard on white bread. The red ring around the bologna was a common kid dislike. Some kids had a strange habit of folding bologna slices into quarters before putting it on bread, because they thought it made the sandwich taste better.
11. Celery with Peanut Butter
Mom’s healthy snacks meant a celery stick filled with peanut butter and topped with raisins (ants on a log). By lunch, the peanut butter had melted and these snacks became a delicious mess. Almost nobody traded these snacks because every mom packed these.
12. Little Debbie Snack Cakes
Oatmeal Creme Pies, Swiss Cake Rolls, and Nutty Bars were royalty when it came to lunchbox desserts. They were cheaper than Hostess snacks, but still a favorite. Not getting crumbs everywhere when eating one was skill that few had.
