Shopping Bags

Remember going to the department store as a kid and they had racks of shopping bags? Those had handles that cut into young fingers and were so big they dragged the ground if you were not quite tall enough. As the day wore on, the bags got heavier. Even kids knew that the fancier the store, the nicer the bag.

It was a wise shopper’s “best practice” to go to the cheaper stores first, progressing to the most expensive ones. This, of course, makes perfect sense. For the Depression generation it was not optional – it was a mandate! If you can find it at a less expensive store, then why not buy it there.

I am not sure if it was that the bags from the more prestigious stores were better or that by the time we got to the pricey stores, the morning’s collection of bags were starting to go. I only know that we came got back to the parking lot carrying bags from the most expensive stores.
My mother and grandmother always saved shopping bags – at least the nice ones. At Christmas they often were beautifully decorated. Of course, we re-used shopping bags. While the cheapies might be used for trash (pre-plastic bags), the fancier ones were used to carry things about when donating to the rummage sale or going to the dry cleaner or maybe taking supplies to a literary club, PTA or DAR meeting.

Grocery bags were a constant when I was growing up. They never had handles and it was impossible to carry more than two at time. But they were ubiquitous. Need to wrap a package, draw a dress pattern, line the trash can, burn the trash (yes, we did that), start a fire in the fireplace, protect from paint spills, or a zillion other things – just grab a brown paper bag. Kids liked to cut holes in them and decorate them. The “bag on your head” concept was alive and well.

I am not sure when the plastic bag entered the scene, but it might have been the mid-60s and life has not been the same since. I remember raking leaves into black plastic bags, much as we do today. There were, and still are, white bags for the kitchen and small white bags for small trash cans. Now we have blue ones for recycling. We all know the code!

Some years ago, someone invented an orange leaf bags decorated like a pumpkin. For a few years you saw them every fall. What a great way to get kids to rake leaves, but maybe the kids got wise to the fact that inflating a large orange bag that looks like pumpkin is really just raking leaves.

Today, the stores use thin plastic bags that are easy to carry. Word is that there is legislation to ban them because of their environmental impact. I have to admit I like them better than paper bags because I have to make fewer trips and the bottom is less likely to rip out than with paper. On the other hand, I see the environmental problem. Personally, I recycle my plastic bags for all sorts of purposes and find them handy to store wadded up in one of their own on the pantry doorknob.

I know I am supposed to be using the non-disposable bags that the grocery stores sell. In various fits of environmental fervor I have actually bought the bags. The only problem is I can never seem to remember to bring them with me to the grocery store. Sometimes they get as far as car, but then I forget to take them with me into the store. On the other hand, they come in handy for all sorts of things, so it is good they are conveniently waiting for in the garage.

My husband collects paper bags and shopping bags. We have an endless supply in the pantry. I am not sure what he does with them, but he too, had a Depression era mother, so some things you just have to do – and saving bags in one of them! Even I can't throw out the ones from the expensive stores -- it is in the DNA.