When I was in elementary school in the late 1980s, a pretty girl in my class slipped me a note in the opening days of the school year.
“I really like your lunch box,” the hastily scribbled note read. This was useful information to possess, for now I knew the love for Ghostbusters that I shared with Audrey could have been the foundation of something special.

Though no young romance came of that brief, silent interaction, it makes me think of the lunch box not just as a useful tool that transports the midday meals of students and blue-collar workers alike; when you’re a kid, the type of lunch box you carried was almost a status symbol of sorts. Most of us carried metal lunch boxes bearing images from a popular TV show, film, or cartoon; today, the metal boxes have fallen out of favor, replaced by soft, insulated polyester models.

According to the Smithsonian Magazine, the lunch box’s origins can be traced to the 19th century, when working men had to protect their midday meal from the rigors of their everyday job. Smaller models would be made for the children who inevitably wanted to emulate their proud dad. The first commercially available lunchboxes in 1902 were metal and designed to look like a picnic basket.

Beloved pop culture characters began appearing on lunch boxes in the mid-1930s, with the first being the big guy himself, the face of the Disney empire – Mickey Mouse in 1935. After the invention of television and the creation of even more pop culture characters, lunch boxes – especially those manufactured by a company called Aladdin Industries — became the hot item to buy for the coming school year, festooned with icons such as The Lone Ranger, Batman, and Charlie Brown and Snoopy.

“Reaching the height of their popularity at the dawn of the television era, lunch box sales became barometers for what was hip in popular culture at any point in time,” according to the Smithsonian’s website.

The arrival of vinyl lunch boxes onto the school supply scene in the 1960s didn’t halt the ever-increasing popularity of metal versions. Metal boxes remained the standard until the 1980s, when plastic took off. The following decade, Aladdin would stop making lunch boxes, but Thermos picked up the slack.

Believe it or not, the Smithsonian itself boasts a sizable collection of vintage lunch boxes featuring characters like Barbie, Woody the Woodpecker and the Partridge Family, as well as TV shows like “Lost in Space.”

In this issue of Discover Vintage America, we examine the history and popularity of comic books, that highly entertaining form of ephemera that also has become highly collectible.

As we prepare to bid farewell to summer, our minds might travel back in time to those carefree afternoons when we felt the warmth of sunshine on our faces as we lounged outside with a glass of lemonade in one hand and a comic book in the other.

The appeal of comics seems as if it only continues to grow even as the medium has undergone major changes in recent decades. According to data supplied by Grand View Research, in 2024, the global market size for comic books stood at $9.38 billion. By 2030, that number is expected to swell to $17.52 billion.

“Comic books and graphic novels appeal to both children and adults, offering a unique storytelling experience that blends visuals with narrative,” the report notes. “Many readers prefer them over traditional novels as the combination of text and imagery enhances engagement and emotional connection. Graphic novels also serve as a form of escapism, allowing readers to immerse themselves in imaginative worlds beyond reality.”

In recent years, the explosion of North American children and adults consuming Japanese comic books called manga has breathed new life into the medium. Even those critics of manga might shrug and say, “Well, at least my child is reading,” while a secondary benefit has been a boost to Japan’s tourism industry as manga fans pour in from other countries with perhaps a romanticized version of the country and its culture in their minds. And vintage comic book heroes are returning to the pages of comics, this time in digital form – companies and websites like gocomics.com allow fans to read the latest issues with a subscription. It’s given me the chance to meet my favorite characters like Dick Tracy and Flash Gordon all over again.

Like all other forms of media, this popularity didn’t always exist. Quite the opposite, in fact. In the 1950s, at the height of the Red Scare, German-American psychiatrist Dr. Frederic Wertham expressed a deep concern about the effects of violence in mass media. His most notable published book on the subject was titled “Seduction of the Innocent.” The book, published in 1954, made the argument that comic books were to blame for juvenile delinquency due to its excessive portrayal of violence; Wertham also claimed that hidden sexual themes could be found in comics. To bolster his claims, Wertham included comic panels he found especially offensive.

When I was a young boy, my parents would always drive by an old farmhouse on the way out of town. Without fail, no matter the time of day, on the porch would be sitting an elderly couple, waving at the cars driving by. It was a comforting, heartwarming sight, seeing two people making others’ day brighter by offering a simple greeting from their porch. You could always count on them being there.
Several years ago, though, the porch sat empty. I assumed the kindly couple had passed on. A short time later, the house was demolished, and with it, a cherished time when people took life at a slower pace and paused to appreciate the smaller gestures of goodwill that people like them provided.

These days, porches remain spaces where one can relax and watch life unfold; now, however, the gesture of greeting comes in the form of small gatherings called “porchfests.” A porchfest is a small music festival, with each musical artist or group playing on the front porch of homes.

They can be found in communities both large and small, and they’re a somewhat recent phenomenon, having begun in Ithaca, NY, in 2007. More than simply a music festival, they were begun in order to gather local musicians and local residents of a particular city and create a sense of community.

If you live in one of the neighborhoods in which a porchfest takes place, you may volunteer your porch as a “stage” of sorts for a musician or group. Signs are posted in front of your porch with the name of the artist and the time(s) at which they will perform. Feel free to bring a lawn chair and soak up a variety of musical genres – you’ll find nearly every one, from jazz and blues to rock and R&B.

Here in our coverage area, you can find at least one porchfest in just about every state in which you can find this publication. In Kansas, Atchison hosts such an event at the start of each summer; Missouri has Kansas City and Joplin, while Omaha, NE, hosts its own porchfest as well.

Roll up your sleeves and don your aprons, because this month’s issue of Discover Vintage America is headed into the kitchen as we explore antique and vintage kitchen appliances. But let’s not forget about those smaller kitchen tools that we might take for granted but hold just as many memories (and usefulness) in the pursuit of culinary perfection. It’s always good, too, to know their potential monetary worth. Is there money to be found in your everyday vintage kitchen items? Is Grandma’s old mixing bowl worth anything?

An article published last month on delish.com attempts to answer these and other questions. As you might expect, that cast iron skillet, which you have to remind your husband not to wash every time it’s used, is one of the most valuable of kitchen tools. Those pieces from the 19th and early 20th centuries are the most difficult to find, with skillets made by companies like Griswold and Wagner fetching especially high prices online – anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand.

CorningWare! What 20th century kitchen didn’t have these pieces as among the most often used. Made from Pyroceram material (itself invented in 1958), Corning-Ware, with its cornflower blue floral design, has earned a reputation of being durable. These can be worth up to a couple of hundred dollars.

Next to licking the mixing spoon, using cookie cutters are easily the best part about baking a fresh batch of sugar cookies (my favorite!). The three things you want to look for when starting a collection of cookie cutters are color, size, and shape – those pieces that are either extra large or extra small are highly sought-after, and “darker tins distinguish hold old the items are,” according to delish.com. You can buy old cookie cutters for as little as $25 or as much as a couple of hundred dollars as well.

Every home needs a KitchenAid Mixer, those sturdy old workhorses from midcentury America. KitchenAid’s inaugural model, the Model H-5 mixer, was released more than a century ago, in 1919. The most coveted models from the 1930s and ‘50s usually fetch high prices as long as they’re in great condition, but much of their value is sentimental, evoking memories of mom or grandma.

In this issue of Discover Vintage America, we place the jukebox under a figurative magnifying glass, exploring its history and its mass appeal. The warm glow of its multicolored lights and the boom of the speakers transport us to simpler times – maybe a first date or a stop at a cozy little dive bar.

There are songs that just seem to sound better when played on a jukebox as well. It’s an unexplainable phenomenon, but if you’ve ever used a jukebox and been overcome by a wave of nostalgia, you know exactly what I mean. Many lists of the best jukebox tunes exist; we’re going to check out one list from Spotify. How many of these songs have you heard on the ol’ jukebox?

•  “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” (1983) by Cyndi Lauper: Originally written from a man’s perspective, we can be glad that Cyndi Lauper got her hands on the song, rewriting the lyrics for a different audience. Considered a feminist anthem, the song’s lyrics stand as a celebration of friendship among women.

• “Love Shack” (1989), The B-52s: The song’s famous shack, complete with a tin roof (rusted), was inspired by a small club in Athens, GA, which B-52s frontman Fred Schneider said “looked like a shack … You opened the door and there was a wild band playing.” Becoming an instant classic, it’s no wonder that the song is now a staple at all B-52 concerts.
•  “Stayin’ Alive” (1977) by The Bee Gees: Immortalized in the film “Saturday Night Fever,” this disco anthem appears at number 189 on the list of The Rolling Stones’ 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.” Despite its catchy beat, the song is actually about survival on the streets of New York City.
• “American Pie” (1971) by Don McLean: McLean’s song is a tribute to the musical heroes of his childhood – early rock ‘n’ roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper, all of whom were killed in a Feb. 3, 1959, plane crash. A song of both nostalgia and disillusion, at 8 minutes and 42 seconds in length, you’d be certain to get your dime’s worth when you listen to this classic on the jukebox.