Asheville Pinball Museum owner T.C. Di Bella knows firsthand the durability of a good lunch box. His own childhood lunch box — a star-spangled tribute to legendary stuntman Evel Knievel — bears only a few cosmetic scuffs after both he and his brother Kelly carried it throughout the ’70s and ’80s to Coats Elementary School in Harnett County.

Just as long-lasting, Di Bella says, are the memories that keepsakes like these can evoke. As he stares into Knievel’s roguishly charming visage, his body might be at the Asheville Pinball Museum, which he co-owns with his wife, Brandy, and technician John French. But his mind is back in the lunchroom. He’s scarfing down the ham-and-cheese sandwich his mom made, showing his friends the daredevil’s motorcycle.

The Beatles and Superman lunch boxes from 1966 photograph by Tim Robison

“You’d be sitting there with your lunch box out, and everyone would look at each other’s,” Di Bella says of the impromptu show-and-tell session. The vintage metal tins were meant to be lingered over: Each represents an art gallery in miniature, boasting on every side illustrations based on a cultural touchstone like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, “Peanuts,” or The Beatles.

As an adult, Di Bella now flaunts an assemblage that would’ve left his cafeteria chums slack-jawed. He owns nearly 230 lunch boxes — by his reckoning, more than anyone else in North Carolina and one of the largest private collections in the country. Museum visitors gaze upon a curated few amid the chimes and bells of the pinball machines, and he has plans to reopen a dedicated lunch box exhibit that was shuttered by Hurricane Helene.

T.C. Di Bella photograph by Tim Robison

Di Bella started his acquisitions in early 2020, after a visitor from Atlanta — who happened to be a Knievel fan himself — saw his old lunch box on display at the museum. The man was downsizing for a cross-country move. Seeking to off-load some of his own lunch box collection, he invited Di Bella to visit his house and take a look. Presented with a wall of more than 100 well-preserved artifacts, the Ashevillean felt compelled to give them a good home.

“I asked, ‘Well, how much?’ He replied, ‘Which one?’ I said, ‘The whole thing!’” Di Bella says with a chuckle. He forked over $5,000, carefully loaded all the boxes into his Dodge Grand Caravan, and took them back to Asheville, intending to showcase them around his pinball machines.

The pandemic paused that plan but pushed Di Bella to expand his new lunch box library. He scoured the Internet and local thrift shops for
overlooked gems, and, as word spread, friends started bringing him their school-era boxes as well. He insisted every addition feature something that he liked — admittedly, a fairly easy bar to clear for the pop culture devotee, whose office decor runs the gamut from Chuck Norris to Invader Zim.

Di Bella displays his prized lunch boxes, featuring pop culture icons like E.T. from 1982 and The Munsters from 1964, at the Asheville Pinball Museum. photograph by Tim Robison

By 2022, Di Bella had established the Lunch Box Hall of Fame in a cozy space beneath the museum. Drawing on his former career as a middle-school teacher, he created educational signage explaining every lunch box’s cultural import and value. The Munsters is one of his rarest, worth more than $700. More than 11,000 visitors paid the $1-dollar admission before he had to close the exhibit due to water damage.

Despite the Helene’s wrath, Di Bella’s durable lunch boxes emerged unscathed, ready to inspire more memories. He hopes to set up the whole collection at another space in downtown Asheville. “When [people] see their old lunch box, and they start taking pictures of it, that is such a neat feeling,” Di Bella says. Like when he was a kid, he loves to watch others get excited about what he’s brought to show off.

Asheville Pinball Museum
1 Battle Square, Suite 1B
Asheville, NC 28801
(828) 776-5671
ashevillepinball.com