Did You Ever Own a Metal Lunchbox?

They were banned in schools in the 1970s after parents complained they were used as weapons and caused serious head injuries. Their history is here from the first Hopalong Cassidy box, to the the last of Rambo Sylvester Stallone model.

I had a red Stewart plaid one in third grade that I remember, complete with a thermos. There were no ice packs included, ever.

The Antique Trader attributes the popularity of metal lunchboxes to television.

Photo taken in 2016

Take a tour of the museum with this YouTube video if you can’t get to Columbus Georgia.

Allen Woodall’s Lunchbox Museum in Columbus, Georgia…..has More than 3,000 lunchboxes and 1,000 thermoses sit on floor-to-ceiling shelves that line the walls. Others hang from the ceiling

Mr Woodall has written an encyclopedia shown below

You can get a pricing guide if you want to start a metal lunchbox collection

At the Museum

Thursday, my sister Mary and I went to the Carnegie Museum of Art to see the photography exhibit Gordon Parks in Pittsburgh 1944-1946 .

While we roamed around the other galleries, I documented our visit with two selfies. One where we are looking quite svelte on our reflection in Heart Pavilion by artist Dan Graham who passed February 2022. Click his name to read his obit. .

The first selfie. A couple of gray heads was about all I could capture.

Quirky Museums

Years ago I bought my sister a book.

The Cockroach Hall of Fame and 101 Other Off-the-Wall Museums by Sandra Gurvis.

This past week when I was visiting Mary, I photographed the cover and peeked inside. She had post-its, handwritten notes (such as the addition of The Jell-O Museum in Leroy, New York) inside the covers, ticket stubs and newspaper clippings about other museums she’s come across.

Do you know anyone else who has been to the National Mustard Museum in Middleton Wisconsin?

Then we went to get coffee and a cardamom bun. Would you believe we walked right by the Museum of Illusions in an old bank on 8th Avenue as we walked to 14th Street? It’s only been there since 2017 so is not in the book.

Yes, there is a Hearing Aids Museum in Kent, Ohio.

When checking the newspaper clippings my sister clipped and added to the book, I stumbled upon a link about controversy when the Museum of Chinese in America reopened last summer 2021.

The Cookie Jar Museum founded by Lucille Bromberek of Lemont Illinois is now closed

Hearing Aids Museum in Kent, Ohio article
A ticket stub from The Tenement Museum
I love that the book is so well used
The Museum of Illusions in NYC on 8th Ave

My friend Randi told me about the Spam Museum in Minnesota. Also called the Guggenham. Don’t worry if you’re not in the neighborhood. There are free virtual tours!

If I’d stayed longer, I would have looked up more of the museums and posted their status.

Friday Night on the North Side

Friday after he got home from work, Steve asked me to go to the Andy Warhol Museum, use our museum memberships.  We always say we are going to go to one of the museums every month and although I went with the grandkids to the Carnegie Science Center twice recently and the Carnegie Museum of Art and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, he and I have not kept up with our plan.  Four museums in one membership is a great deal but you have to utilize it!    Tonight we were remembering going the night the Warhol  opened in 1994. We had a beer and sat on the couch, a nice man offered to take our photo as he saw me struggle with a selfie attempt. We took a walk to the river after our visit.

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Michael at the Children’s Museum and Cloud Arbor

Michael is visiting Pittsburgh along with sister Maura and cousin Charlie.  Today we  went to the Children’s Museum on the North Side.

all the family loves the Ned Kahn’s Cloud Arbor

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