What was in your childhood lunchbox?

[DukeofEarlGrey]

Inspired by the 1980s lunchbox thread about the actual boxes... what did you have in them??

Mine was extremely consistent: sandwich, piece of fruit, carrot sticks and a ‘treat’ that varied but was always some kind of biscuit. My favourite were these things called Huggy Bears which was a little bag of biscuits with chocolate goo inside and bears stamped on the outside.

My lovely dad was in charge of lunch boxes and did this for me every day as well as a lunch for everyone else.

@RoseMartha milky coffee in a thermos or cold milky coffee? I can’t imagine a child sat at lunch getting out a hot thermos of coffee.

Mid-late 90s:

Sandwich
Chocolate bar like a penguin, or club
Yoghurt or frube
Piece of fruit
Capri sun

Same thing for all 7 years of primary...

@BrilliantBulb I believe the proper version (and the one we all sang) was:

If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit, join our quack

m.youtube.com/watch?v=8LmZCMmNPkM

😂

I'm an 80s/90s kid. I had a sandwich (ham/ham-like things, cheese and pickle, or my favourite: tuna mayo), some crisps or mini cheddars, an apple and a yoghurt. Sometimes my mum would put a sausage roll or a pasty instead of the butty. I had a flask which would have squash or barley water in it. We never had extra bits or anything branded. I managed quite well on this until the end of 6th form

Sandwich with Primula cheese spread with shrimps in it.

A fruit pie, apple or apple and blackcurrant. Or a tin of Heinz baby food chocolate pudding!

I actually had school lunch, but for school trips or family train or coach trips my packed lunch would be egg mayonnaise sandwich, or cheese spread sandwich. The bright orange cheese came in a jar, I think it was called Velveeta.
There might also be a cold sausage or two, or a piece of sweaty cheese or better still a tomato. A banana was a touch of sheer luxury!

Occasionally, Mum would meet me from school, and we’d get the bus to the cinema to see Oklahoma! or Anastasia. On these trips it was traditional for us to have sandwich spread sandwiches.

[quote AleynEivlys]@BrilliantBulb I believe the proper version (and the one we all sang) was:

If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit, join our quack

m.youtube.com/watch?v=8LmZCMmNPkM

😂[/quote]
😂 Ah I really want a club now!!

Crisps
Flapjacks
Brownies
Sausage rolls
A slice of cake

In the winter months I had hot food however.

I had school dinners, so my only exposure to packed lunches was when we went on school (or family) trips.

My DM was usually pretty 'wholegrain' but I remember one particular packed lunch when she let me have Dairylea sandwiches, on white bread, and a packed of Prawn Cocktail Walkers to put into the sandwich when it came time to eat it... What a day ☺️

White bread sandwiches, packet of crisps and a club biscuit. With orange squash as the drink

Either sandwiches my dad got free from the local bakery because he was friends with the manager and they gave him the days leftovers, or cold meat which would be chicken or goat, with "drinking" yoghurt, apple or pear in autumn, and a Mars bar cut up between however many of us children were in school at the time.
We were the weird ones.

Cheese or spam sandwiches with no butter. My mum hated butter so refused to buy it meaning our sandwiches were grim. Home made cupcakes with no icing. We were poor 😢

I was only allowed packed lunch once I was at high school, so we are talking mid 80's..I had sandwich (marmite/jam/cheese spread), a packet of crisps, a small chocolate bar (club etc) an apple or satsuma and a flask with either squash or coffee...I don't recall cartons being a thing particularly though possibly given as a treat on a school trip.

My 80s packed lunch was invariably: cheese sandwich, apple, crisps, biscuit - some sort of non-branded penguin. Flask of orange squash.

Objects of packed lunch envy that I never had: those cupcakes that were topped with about a cm of icing that you could peel off in one piece it was so thick, cubes of jelly (probably an act of desperation by a mum who'd run out of treats but we thought the person who brought in 2 cubes of jelly every day as part of her pack lunch was living in unimaginable luxury)

Objects of packed lunch sympathy: anyone who had cold pasta or any sort of leftovers in tupperware. Probably a lot more tasty than what we were having, but any lunch that strayed from our white, working class orthodoxy was looked on with a bit of suspicion.

Sandwich (sometimes wrap towards the end of high school when they became trendy), crisps/pringles in a little holder that held about 10 pringles, frube, piece of cake/kit kat. This was obviously before schools started getting involved in what kids could take. Everyone took similar, most had crisps and biscuits every day, and we turned out fine!

Sandwich (which was only ever cheese, ham or pate), chocolate biscuit and a plastic flask filled with squash.

Never any fruit or vegetables!

I massively overthink my kids lunches now as I got so bored of mine, I dont want them to feel the same.

Cheese and pickle, corned beef or peanut butter sandwich, usually with something like vitbe hi-bran bread. Penguin, trio or similar. Maybe an apple or satsuma. Flask of tea.

Sometimes cheddar spread or fish paste, too. If my mum baked I got a piece of cake.

@LindaEllen

Sandwich (sometimes wrap towards the end of high school when they became trendy), crisps/pringles in a little holder that held about 10 pringles, frube, piece of cake/kit kat. This was obviously before schools started getting involved in what kids could take. Everyone took similar, most had crisps and biscuits every day, and we turned out fine!

I used to desperately want one of those Pringles holders. They were shaped like a Pringle if that makes sense, rather than just being a Tupperware box. A girl I knew had a pink one.

I actually didn’t like Pringles and used to complain they were ‘too tasty’ to mean too strong but I would have eaten them from that pink holder if I had one!

Honey sandwich on brown bread, couple
Of digestives or a mini roll. Apple for break time. Was always hungry after that! Was very jealous of the kids who got white bread (major treat in our house) crisps everyday and “proper” lunchbox biscuits like breakaways. Even though I was so jealous my kids now only get crisps once a week in their boxes! I don’t make them have honey sandwiches though.

Sandwich on white bread (marmite, jam, ham and pickle, or corned beef and mustard)
Cucumber or cherry tomatoes or small crisps e.g. Fish n Chips/those plastic pringles cases or some buttered crackers or malt loaf or a few jaffa cakes.
Piece of fruit - apple or satsuma
"Snack biscuit" (1-finger twix, Club, wagon wheel etc)
Squash from a flask, or carton Um Bongo/fruit juice

Occasionally I'd have cold sausage pasta salad instead of a sandwich, which was wildly exciting.

For snack I'd generally have a piece of fruit, packet of crisps (normal size/mini pringles tub) or snack biscuit. I assume this wouldn't double up with my lunch, but I can't really remember.

Oh yeah fish paste! That was another sandwich option :o

@Paperyfish I still remember the times my dad came home after work with a load of white because the brown was all sold out in the shop. I was probably about 6 😆. I don't give my dc actual crisps every day but they do have a (every so slightly) healthier option every day if they want such as salted popcorn, snack a jacks or sunbites. The envy (and hunger) has never left me

I always had standard packing up. Sandwich, crisps & biscuit etc.

Unless I was going on a school trip. I would get triple the amount, including a dairylea lunchable! I used to look forward to that lunch more than the trip

Why did you get a better lunch if you already had the treat of being out of school for the day? I never understood that.

Vegemite sandwich, raw Maggi's noodles with damp finger to be dipped in the flavour sachet, navy biscuits, chopped pepper, melon. Bit odd looking back.