Back when I took my machinist apprenticeship, when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, the lunch-bucket was King. Everybody had a classic old Stanley lunch box sometimes with the coffee and sometimes without. But everybody’s lunch was about the same if you were a married guy. Generally have consisted of 3 sandwiches, one for morning break and two for lunch, a bag of chips of some sort, and a Twinkie or a ho ho. Twinkies were summer because they wouldn’t melt, ho-hos were winter. Sometimes you would get a hard-boiled egg for an afternoon snack, sometimes a Snickers bar or similar. Most of the guys liked this arrangement just fine and were very used to it.

It was always fun to watch a young guy transition into this pattern. Most unmarried guys would make their own food or buy food off the Roach Coach.

One such fresh hire got married on a Saturday and on Monday he came to work with a paper bag. At lunch time he unrolled the top of a paper bag expecting to see a Feast spread before him.

His young wife had piled up some Fritos on a paper plate, a hot dog with no bun, put another paper plate upside down on top and stapled it together around the edge.

Of course the entire lunch room roared. He went back to eating off the road to coach the next day, and it’s so until one of the other wives took her side and explain how to make and iron workers lunch.

40 years ago man and boy. Where the hell did that time go?