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Orman Longstreet remembers the one he carried in 1929. "It was plain green galvanized tin," said Longstreet, 80. "I still remember the thermos going 'slish-slosh' on the way to school."

Longstreet, of Los Osos, sells antique lunchboxes at Rich Man Poor Man Antique Mall in Cayucos. He's been collecting the metal containers -- and thermoses -- since 1972.

Most of his lunchboxes, which run from $15 to $1,200, celebrate television shows and movies. He has 1952's "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet" ($230); 1968's "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" ($120); and "The Dukes of Hazzard" from 1983 ($74.50).

There are lunchboxes devoted to Lassie, Barbie and "Little House on the Prairie." A 1975 box featuring Brazilian soccer star Pele goes for $126; the "Dudley Do-Right," a 1960s cartoon, costs $1,200.

Rusted and scratched, the lunchboxes are pricey because most were not produced in large quantities. There are only a handful of "Dudley Do-Right" boxes still in existence. By the third grade, Longstreet said, many children were embarrassed to carry lunchboxes, so they tossed them. He's found some of his best boxes, or what he called "lithograph pop art on steel," at Goodwill stores or in the trash.

The publication of two books on the fad, "The '50s and '60s Lunchbox" and "The Official Price Guide to Lunch Box Collectibles," elevated prices and popularized collecting.

"Somewhere between the baby bottle and the brown bag, you were what you carried," wrote the books' author, Scott Bruce. Collecting them is "collecting your childhood ... It takes the sting out of getting old."

Before Bruce's books were published in the late 1980s, Longstreet said he could find the boxes at thrift stores for 50 cents.

"It's a weird hobby," Longstreet said. "I like them because they are a multiple product. Some people buy them because they have pleasant memories of growing up in those times."

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