What kind of lunchbox did you have when you were growing up? Perhaps, I should have said lunchboxes, because you may have had more than one. I don’t remember having one at all. I do remember lunchboxes of all sorts and kinds from my childhood, but the only one I had was not a box but a brown-paper bag. My dad talked about taking his lunch to school in a syrup can. If you are around my age, you probably heard that same story from your dad. He may have also told you how he had to walk to school through the snow…and uphill both going and coming.
When I was in the sixth grade, my school tore down, or moved out, our old lunchroom to make room for a new cafeteria. That year, we either had to purchase a sandwich at school or take our own lunch. That was the year I employed the brown-paper sacks. No, not for the reason you may be thinking. Mine usually contained a banana sandwich, which would turn dark by lunchtime, or a tuna-salad sandwich I hoped didn’t turn anything before lunch!
If you had a lunchbox, you were fortunate. If you had several, perhaps even a new one every year, you were really blessed. What if you had 5,000 of them? Allen Woodall, of Columbus, Georgia, does indeed have somewhere around 5,000 lunchboxes. In fact, his world-famous Lunch Box Museum houses the largest collection in the world.
His collection began more than 40 years ago when he purchased two lunchboxes. One featured the Green Hornet and the other one Dick Tracy. Since that simple beginning, Mr. Woodall developed a hobby of collecting vintage lunchboxes. His hobby eventually evolved into a public museum. The collection includes the likes of The Beatles, Charlies Angels and Batman and Robin. There are lunchboxes with sports figures, actors, cartoon characters, dinosaurs and just about everything else you can imagine. The museum has been written up in The Smithsonian Magazine and featured on numerous television programs, including CBS’ “Sunday Morning” and PBS’ “Simply Southern.”
Several weeks ago, Jean and I stumbled across the museum while visiting River City Antiques. We went there in search of antiques but discovered The Lunch Box Museum, as well as a treasure trove of small museums all under the same roof. While shopping there, we met Mr. Woodall’s granddaughter, Kaitlynn Etheridge, who helps manage the store and museums. Upon learning that I build cigar-box instruments, she asked if I would build one out of one of their lunchboxes. I gladly accepted her invitation. While it was not the original Dick Tracy lunchbox with which her grandfather started his collection, she entrusted me with a duplicate of that one. I even topped off the instrument with colored strings to match the box. We returned this past week to deliver the finished project. It is now the newest addition to The Lunch Box Museum. You can also find one of my hand-built cigar box guitars or dulitars in The Folk Art Museum there.
The Lunch Box Museum is a must visit. It is one of seven museums there, including the Hatcher Family Cola Museum, Tom Huston Peanut Museum, Georgia Radio Museum, an Antique Car Museum, The Chero-Cola Museum and The Folk Art Museum. For one low price, and a good portion of a day, you can tour them all. You can even stroke the yellow house cat, or maybe I should say the museum cat. You can then take a short drive down the street for scrumptious fried catfish and hushpuppies at Rosehill Seafood. It’s a fun day!
Bill King can be reached at bkpreach@yahoo.com.
