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The memories triggered by a lunchbox.

The "Gunsmoke" lunchbox reminds Bryan Herrick, of Plymouth, Mich., that his bedtime was 7:30 but the TV show ran until 8. His father, a big fan of westerns, let Herrick stay up late those nights to watch the whole show.

John Sperry of Peoria remembers he got a new lunchbox every year, but the one that stands out is a "Star Trek" box he had in the 1st grade. Told that collectors are now paying more than $1,000 for that long-lost lunchbox, Sperry smiles and winces. "You're kidding," he said. "That hurts."

Herrick and Sperry were among the first visitors to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History's new display of more than 100 vintage lunchboxes. The exhibit -- "Taking America to Lunch" -- opened last month in the museum cafeteria with a gift of dozens of lunch kits from Rolling Meadows-based Thermos LLC, the giant in the lunchbox business.

The Smithsonian also has a smaller, touring exhibition called "Lunchbox Memories" that is traveling around the country, currently showing in Lexington, Mass. Lunchbox fans can also catch an exhibit of more than 100 boxes through Aug. 16 at the Museum of Lifestyle and Fashion History in Delray Beach, Fla.

That lunchboxes hold such allure is a striking reminder of the power of television in children's lives, particularly children born in the three decades after World War II.

"It's not a coincidence that the American metal lunchbox is shaped like an early television screen," said David Shayt, the museum's curator. "The marriage between the two was made early."

TV studios recognized in the little boxes a perfect billboard for their shows, and lunchbox makers saw gold in the pictures they pasted, pressed or painted on their products.

The metal lunchbox with the stumpy matching Thermos is mostly a piece of lunchroom past; they were phased out in the 1980s -- some believe a band of Florida mothers demanded they be banned as potential playground weapons, others point out manufacturing plastic lunch receptacles was cheaper. In any event, lunchboxes are still an active part of kid culture, though they are likely to be molded plastic or zippered nylon affairs.

The Smithsonian display features the mass-market metal boxes and some ancient lunch history as well -- cigar tins and metal boxes with chewing tobacco logos that were used to tote lunches once the tobacco was gone. Enshrined as artifacts in glass cases are the "A-Team" lunchbox, the "Jetsons" lunchbox, "Lost in Space" and "Welcome Back, Kotter."

As the exhibit was unveiled, Meadowlark Lemon donned white gloves to place a Harlem Globetrotters cartoon lunchbox in the display case and declared, "I never thought that it would come to this -- coming in to the Lunchbox Hall of Fame."

Shirley Jones -- better known as Shirley Partridge -- eyeballed a "Partridge Family" lunchbox, complete with the famous multicolored school bus, and declared, "I finally became a relic."

Even today, lunchboxes give children a way to publicly declare their allegiances, to announce in public something about themselves: that they like Batman or Barbie or Pokemon.

Which may be why the lunchboxes of our youth still exert a pull on our hearts long into adulthood.

"The first connection of the public display of one's affections and tastes is a fairly serious thing," said Charles Camp, a professor of folklore and popular culture at Penn State University. "That experience of a young person kind of entering that commerce is something that really makes an impression."

Indeed. Thermos' 1953 Roy Rogers lunchbox sold more than 2 million units, making it the company's best-selling lunchbox ever, according to Thermos Vice President Rick Dias.

Movies followed

And where TV blazed the lunchbox trail, movies quickly followed. Disney's dome top school bus lunchbox featuring Mickey, Donald, Bambi and the rest -- produced from 1961 to 1973 -- is reportedly the best-selling box ever, having sold about 9 million units.

Guessing which shows or movies or characters will be popular with the kids is not an exact science, and Dias doesn't like to talk about the flops. But he conceded, "Ricky Martin didn't sell well."

Dias would not disclose how many lunchboxes Thermos sells each year, but he said the number is in the millions -- though nylon thermal bags are more fashionable now.

Mike Dobbs of Lunchboxes.com -- a Web site selling lunchboxes and related paraphernalia -- said the Thermos insulated container is no longer a requirement in a lunch kit because parents can pack a drink box instead, and the thermal bag will keep the drink cold.

Modern materials allow a broader range of shapes, and some of the faces on the modern lunch kit have changed. Dobbs said SpongeBob SquarePants has been a big seller in recent years at back-to-school time, when the lion's share of lunchboxes are sold nationwide.

Oldies still available

But the oldies are still available -- for a price. Ted Hake runs Hake's Americana & Collectibles, an Internet and catalog sales company where a 1960 astronaut lunchbox sold for $460. Hake said an original "Star Trek" lunchbox in pristine condition could fetch as much as $1,500 from a serious collector.

But Hake said most of his clients are not serious collectors, just adults trying to grasp a piece of their childhood.

"We get it all the time," he said. "People looking for that one thing they remember that they lost."

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