I made a couple of these for my family and got another request for a couple more. I made them out of Cedar fencing boards and painted with some fence stain/preservative. I made each finger and then joined with glue. After the glue set, I made a cut thru the knuckle and put in a spline. I also drilled all the way thru the fingers and glued in a small dowel to hold the fingers together. The childrens sunglasses came from the Dollar store

I remember something like that during WW11 and the caption above them said Kilroy Was Here.

Cute fence faces. They're good lookers, alright. 

Kilroy was a weld inspector and left his mark on ship construction welds. The mark ment it was inspected and OK'd. After that, it became popular and everyone was making one.

Thats the story I read and it sounds possible.

My dad was a welder in San Pedro, Calif. during the war. Cal Ship was the name of the ship builder company?? I think...…. Every day he would come home with a differently painted lunch pail...All the welders would leave their lunches boxes together and if they happened to be in the way of the painting crew they would get all kinds of new designs making it hard for each guy to find his own food …

 

Mother had to set the newly painted lunch box out side while dad was home for the paint smell was bad.  

Edited May 17, 20196 yr by Smallpatch

1 minute ago, Smallpatch said:

My dad was a welder in San Pedro, Calif. during the war. Cal Ship was the name of the ship builder company?? I think...…. Every day he would come home with a differently painted lunch pail...All the welders would leave their lunches boxes together and if they happened to be in the way of the painting crew they would get all kinds of new designs making it hard for each guy to find his own food ... 

Oh to have one one of those lunch boxes today, what a relic!

My wife has still got the one her dad used when he was a cotton ginner but it is plastic but does have the same type thermos.

49 minutes ago, Smallpatch said:

My wife has still got the one her dad used when he was a cotton ginner but it is plastic but does have the same type thermos.

Jess, I had a really neat old lunch box from the 1920's that was left behind by a dear family friend of ours after he passed years ago, it had an arched top, and was stamped metal and the thermos secured in the arched top.

What struck me the most about it was it's size. It was small! I was thinking, two things, either back in the day they didn't feel like they had to bring a ton of food, or today, with our big boxes, we are a bunch of spoiled pigs, no wonder our nation is having an obesity issue!

I am the same way, my big box is about the size of two shoe boxes. Of course I pack breakfast and lunch in it.

Still though, that 1920's box was very small.

When I was a kid my dad worked for Beech Aircraft.  His lunch box was nothing special, but it was to me, because every day when he came home from work, I would grab it and see if there was anything left I could snack on until supper was ready.  There was always something in there for me.  I found out years later from my mom that she would pack extra food in his lunch box so that there would be something left for me when he got home.

That's a neat story, Tom. Nice memories.

Edited May 18, 20196 yr by Gene Howe

 I have a lunch box story also. In the early days of my job, everyone packed a lunch box and all were set in one place in a lunch room. There were many different kinds, from very old hand-me-downs, to the latest with the best stainless thermos bottles. One puzzled me. It was a full sized woven picnic basket. I was anxious to see who had it and what he had in something that large. Soon I got my answer and it was a surprise. He was one of the smallest guys there and his basket was FULL of sandwiches, fruit and desert. To my amazement.......he ate all of it, every day.

When I first started working at the base, I carried a couple sandwiches and a ziploc bag in a paper lunch sack.  I weighed all of 125 pounds.  After my wife started packing leftovers in a lunchmate, I began to gain weight.  35 years later, I weighed 175 pounds carrying the same 2 sandwiches, a few chips, and a cookie or 2 she made.  Now after 15 years retirement, I am trying to get back down to that 175 pounds.  

11 minutes ago, FlGatorwood said:

When I first started working at the base, I carried a couple sandwiches and a ziploc bag in a paper lunch sack.  I weighed all of 125 pounds.  After my wife started packing leftovers in a lunchmate, I began to gain weight.  35 years later, I weighed 175 pounds carrying the same 2 sandwiches, a few chips, and a cookie or 2 she made.  Now after 15 years retirement, I am trying to get back down to that 175 pounds.  

Good luck on that . I have added 20 since I retired 6 years ago and added way too much over the holidays which never dropped off this time as it usually does.