Flicks Candy

My friend Darrin over at Dad's Dish Retro Blog loves to go on little shopping sprees for cool retro stuff all the time.  Since I live in a small town I don't really have access to the type of stores that have the inventory that includes these great finds.  But - I do have memories and every now and then - something triggers one of them.  And - I have the internet that can instantly show me pictures to help with my memories.


Flicks!

I don't even know what it was that brought this memory back.  UPDATE:
My brother gave me a call this afternoon to say he had read my blog about Flicks.  He asked me what it was that reminded me of them.  I again asserted that I wasn't sure what had brought back the memory, at which point he pointedly reminded me the HE had called me and told me about a display of them he had seen in store just the other day!!  (Insert "getting old" jokes here).  Anyway - with his reminding me of these, I did have these great memories of Flicks.

I do know that I remember that there was nothing better than getting some Flicks and slowly eating the large chocolate chip shaped candy.  The shiny foil covered tubes were super cool looking and fit easily in your hand.

I've done some searching and found some places I can buy them.  Sounds like I'm planning ahead for stocking-stuffers for next Christmas!

Taking Lunch to School

Metal lunch pails (also called lunchboxes)! When I was a kid, these were a must have! Of course, they were what everyone else had, so I had to have one, too! The measure of how cool you were was whether or not you had the latest lunch pail of the latest cool thing – usually a TV show, cartoon, rock band or teenage idol.

The really top-of-the-line lunchboxes had the matching thermos that had the plastic cup on top for bringing mom’s homemade soup. These usually had a cool spring loaded metal clip that held the thermos in place. What’s sad is that I don’t even remember what ones I had, although I don’t think I ever had the fancy ones with the thermos. I do remember vividly the feel of it in my hands; the way the little clasp locked tightly to hold it together as I carried it to and from school; the way it would look when I got home and the remnants of the days lunch – or worse – of that part of the lunch I didn’t eat, were stuck to the sides of metal … ewww!

Like so many things from the ‘70s, these have become collectible and, in some cases, rare and valuable. There’s a cool blog that has a very inclusive list of all the lunch pails available back then. you can see it here: http://www.skooldays.com/decades/lunchboxes_1970s.htm

There's also a site called collectorsquest.com with pics and the story of this guy who has amassed quite a little collection. see it here: http://www.collectorsquest.com/collection/574/vintage-metal-lunchboxes.html