What the heck, man, we only had Shopco stores around us. My early school clothes were all from Penny’s or Sears. My mom was a fan of the Garanimals, but I was a twig, so jeans had to come from the boys slim cubbies at Sears.
First lunch box that I can remember having, I had to pretty much beg for because “what’s wrong with paper bags?” 
Managed to get another one a year or so later: 
Somewhere in there I traded the opportunity to get a new lunch box for a pair of these: 
I can’t help myself. Have to post this:
I had a pair of 'Roos, but recall being vaguely unhappy that I didn’t have a key to put in the pocket, like the tennis playing yuppies in the commercials did (well at least not a key that operated anything).
The BIG DEAL among my particular peer group was Zips. Because not only velcro, and perhaps a pocket, but also stickers.
(I think there was another brand of kids’ shoes that had customizable logos, either via stickers or velcro attachment, but google fails me. They had ads in comic books… And I really wanted a pair.)
I was a latchkey kid. Not only did I have a functional key, I used my damned shoe to store it. Kept my lunch money in the other one for the days that the menu wasn’t 100% terrible.
I like to imagine that I was responsible for a small celebration at the lunch box company…
“we actually sold one”
True story: When we were kids in the 1970s my brother joined the Slim Whitman fan club. The ad said that it came with a membership certificate, a signed photo and a Slim Whitman lunchbox. He sent the money and his membership package arrived a few weeks later. The “lunchbox” was a brown paper bag with “Slim Whitman Fan Club” stamped on it. Absolutely true story!
Yeah, I never got a lunch-box. 
Whatever happened to lunchboxes anyway?
It was filled with corn-syrup. Is there gluten in corn-syrup?
The filling was comprised of 9% dextrose,10% meltose,12% meltriose and 69% higher
sacchrides.Other compounds of white limestone, Glass with a particle
size of 50 microns, gum resin, wood, flour, pine pitch mixture,
limestone and talc were also added in amounts that helped increase the
weight and volume which in turn also helped to reduce cost.The syrup
solution was then heated in an evaporator to reduce the moisture content
and increase the solid content up to 87.5% to 93%.leaving an average of
only 10% moisture in the solution.
(source)
I APOLOGIZE FOR THE FONT AT THAT SITE.
Nothing? My eldest son just got one for pre-K.
I suspect it was Barbie, who also had a panel van.
My grandmother worked for Aladdin and got me one of these in 6th grade:
I think I stopped carrying it by the end of the year and switched to paper bags. The peer pressure in that school was pretty intense (compared to other schools I’d attended, in different states) but it got worse the closer we got to adolescence.
Mainly they are made out of vinyl, or whatever material they make backpacks out of. Often the backpack and lunchbox are a matching set. Every once in a while I’ll see a metal one (we had a Thomas the Tank Engine) but they seem smaller – or maybe it’s because I grew larger – or both.
nuh uh, no way, nope
Well, uh, perhaps, but hers is completely different. 
Way off topic but I think this may be the coolest toy series ever created (at least, available in the US):
(Just noticed that the weapon in the still image is quite johnsonesque)
Back on topic, the main thing I remember about back-to-school is that year after year, I was going to turn over a new leaf because I got an assignment book where I could keep track of due dates etc. But no, every year was really the same.
Man, you guys, had parents? Lucky!
Okay, that was supposed to be funny. From my perspective, it was. I had parental figures for much of my schooling, and they provided an awesome series of school supplies and lunch boxes. Sadly , the lunch boxes were mostly filled with hunks of twisted metal, and only some food. The metal hunks were great for making noise, but did little for keeping me from passing out from making noise. I was a finicky kid.
This one is similar to one that was one of my favorites. It could even hold a whole sandwich.
These are novelty items, really, not intended for use as actual lunch boxes. The ones I have seen have stickers rather than being lithographed, and are rather fragile.
I have one with “Iron Giant” decor.
I finally got around to reading the actual post. The author seems to think all modern-day parents are fad-driven concern-freaks.
I suspect that there is more parental over-involvement and over-concern these days, but it isn’t as pathological as pictured. And many parents just don’t have the time to be that involved.
