I just searched "Tarzan lunchbox" and saw my old companion, evidently it was first made in 1967 by Aladdin? That sounds about right, we were overseas from '68-'73, living outside Athens, and my family was still together in those day. My brothers and I, we all had different lunchboxes, I think we each got to pick one out. I think my bro Aidan had a "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea" lunchbox---like my pop, he became a CDR in the USN Submarine Service. Funny how things worked out, now that I look back upon it all decades later. I'm thinking my pop probably bought the lunchboxes from the PX, or whatever other stores served the American community during that era. Don't know if it was run by the military or not, but there was an "American Club" a few blocks from our house, next to the Cecil Hotel... we used to take a shortcut through the trees behind the hotel, more on that in a moment. The American Club had a swimming pool, probably pretty rinky-dink but to us kids it was everything in summer, it even had diving boards (low & high, if I recall correctly). Not far from the pool, there was a JUSMAG (?) theater where we watched movies, and get this, the cost of admission was a QUARTER!!! I sh!t you not, I distinctly remember that for some odd reason. I remember one time when my entire family watched some submarine movie, my dad was drunk and I remember him snorting with derision at some "technical inaccuracies" in the flick... what my friends & I now call "Hollywood Bull$h!t." Man, those were the days, before my family was ripped apart by bitter divorce and everything went south...
This thread brought up an old memory of a hilarious incident which occurred in the woods behind the Cecil Hotel. Four of us were taking the shortcut to the American Club, my brother Aidan and his best friend Charlie (both about 10 years old), my brother Pete (9), and yours truly (I would've been 7 or 8 at the time). The woods were very pleasant, a regular garden spot, and there was a thick carpet of fallen pine needles on the ground which made for quiet progress, right? A low stone wall 2' or 3' high ran up a gentle slope through the woods... as we approached this wall, Charlie was in the lead, all of us in file, and suddenly Charlie motioned us to be quiet and get down behind the wall. We all crept up and looked over the low stone barrier: a young American couple (teenagers) were getting it on, the gal's dress up and the dude naked to the waist, his jeans halfway down. In the heat of passion, they never even heard or saw our approach. Chortling with glee as he whispered to us, Charlie directed all of us to gather as many pine cones as we could, and on his given signal we all stood and launched a veritable hail o' cones toward the couple, who were probably about 50' or 60' away across the carpeted forest floor. Then we ran as hard as we could the remaining distance up the slope, to vanish into the grounds of the Cecil Hotel as we made our escape. Being the youngest of the group, I was of course last, and I recall glancing back to see & hear the dude, who was now standing and shaking his fist, his other hand trying ineffectually to fasten his jeans... thankfully he never gave chase, probably just waited till he was sure we were gone and then resumed his business.
FUNNY WHAT ONE REMEMBERS WHEN AN OLD MEMORY IS TRIGGERED BY A THREAD LIKE THIS, LOL. BTW, THAT TARZAN LUNCHBOX NOW GOES FOR AT LEAST $185, AND I THINK THAT'S WITHOUT THE THERMOS. I'LL POST A LINK LATER TODAY WHILE WATCHING FOOTBALL AND COOKING THAT 22-LB. TURKEY...
