Lunch Pails

I am getting older and sometimes some things just don’t click like they should.  Then all of a sudden in the middle of the night it came to me, I was lucky and remembered it in the morning.  The pail was a lunch pail. It was one of those aha moments.

Cousin Bonnie gave Far Guy four items that were Great Great Grandpa Alecks ..I have already showed you the Mystery Item= hog scraper. One item was self explanatory, one was documented ( I will show you these next week one day) and then there was this pail.. I opened it up and said “Wonder what this was used for?”  Far Guy replied “Beats me.”  Xaver was a Tailor and then a Farmer..neither of us thought about him as a boy.. going to school.

This is the lunch pail.

Xaver Aleck was born in Germany in 1828. I was surprised to read that he had a twin brother Karl who died in infancy. In 1842 when Xaver was fourteen years old his Father died, he was sent to Switzerland to attend school and to live with his older brother..but they did not get along.

Do I think this is a lunch pail from Switzerland?  I think it is unlikely..but it is possible.  I am not sure that we will ever know for sure.
I was just happy to have identified it as a lunch pail…and it was this photo that I recalled in the middle of the night. A collection of different lunch pails at a little one room school house on the Lake Itasca Pioneer Farmers grounds.

I doubt if our children will take the time to read the 198 page history of this part of the family..but hopefully I can bring enough bits and pieces forward in this blog so that someday they will say..aha I remember when Mom wrote about that!

I am off to a Scrap Book Retreat later today..perhaps I will take some photos and show you them tomorrow:)