Lunch Boxes

So this time of year always puts me in mind of back to school sales and the tradition we referred to as buying school supplies. A quick couple of notes:

As a kid, I always loved when the stores put out their Christmas decorations a few weeks before the holiday and it doesn’t bother me much now when they start right after Halloween. However I HATED when the stores put out the Back to School signs up in mid-August back then and figure that kids hate it now when they start appearing after the July 4th weekend.

Back to school sale for me meant a new pair of shoes, some school uniform pants and a package of paper to put in a loose leaf binder. Now a days, you can't get out of the store without dropping a couple of Franklins. For my kids it meant new sneakers, new clothing and enough pens, pencils and notebooks to fill a supply closet. Don’t forget the calculator, Mead Trapper Keeper, back pack and new lunch box with the theme de jure, any one of hundreds of cartoon characters.

I never got to carry a lunch box. We got the old brown bag most days and that was it. But I must admit that I loved the thought of carrying one and would do so today if I could. I wouldn’t put cartoon characters on mine today however; I think I would want interesting people on them to let everyone know where I stand.

Can you picture carrying your baloney sandwich and bottle of holy water in your very own Glenn Beck in the tin foil hat, lunch box? Available in red, white, blue or tin, for extra protection?

What about the Sarah Palin Delux model to carry your freshly shot and made wolf burger in. And you could fill up your commerative Ted Stevens Thermos with delicious moose chile, fresh out of the pot.

And boy, who wouldn’t want the Al Gore lunch box with plenty of bottled glacial melt water in it.

Then again, maybe these are cartoon character lunch boxes…