Paper Bags

[Malcolm Buggeridge]

A wonderful trip down memory lane EO...

...and do you recall the way in which the shopkeeper would finish the bagging up process by performing a deft little flick in which the bag would somersault over itself whilst keeping the top corners firmly between thumb and forefinger thus sealing the bag and giving the finshed article the appearance of having two little ears?

It was quite an art and the old girl in our local greengrocers could bag up your greens with the kind of flourish more associated with an italian swinging pizza dough round his head.

Contrast this with today's experience at the checkout in which the question "would you like a bag?" is intoned in such a way that the hapless punter feels that any answer other than "no" is going to seriously inconvenience the poor, overworked individual behind the counter who would otherwise be busy with a nailfile.

Well, that's what I get from Len at "Woof and Poof" whenever I go in for my weekly supply of dog chews anyhow....

[d000hg]

Paper bags can be used as emergency tissues/bog-roll, but they're useless as emergency condoms.

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/i...5183143AA1wFgR

[MarillionFan]

Some of youse youngsters may not believe this, but there was a time when we didn't have plastic bags.
Yes, indeed. There are people who post here who grew up in the era of the paper bag.

In those days, if you bought some sweeties, meat, fish an chips, it was wrapped up in paper, or came in a paper bag.

Paper bags were great if you were a kid because they rustle. If someone in the class had some jelly babies, they could not sneak one out without the whole class knowing. The sound of a rustling paper bag was the same as the mating sound of the female moose to a moose bull. irresistible.

Then of course, when the jelly babies were gone, you could get the paper bag, close the opening around your thumb, to make a neck, blow into it then burst it with the flat of the hand in a mighty explosion that used to make the cats and dogs run for cover, and gave you a thick ear, if your mum was around.
Alternatively, you could fill the paper bag with water, light a candle in the shed and impress the younger kids by showing them that the paper would not catch fire if you held it over the flame. Which earned another thick ear when your mum found out where all the candles went and there is a power cut coming next Tuesday.
Paper bags made good alternative hankies for a snotty nose on a winters day, bog paper for a big day out to the cut on a Saturday or tinder if a fire was needed in a hurry.

Plastic bags are just not the same. Would you wipe yer bum on a Tesco bag ?


then:-





now:-

Heard Mrs EO was a double bagger.

[d000hg]

then:-





now:-

Even the supermarkets still have pick'n'mix with paper bags and I'm happy to say many small shops still have the humble small white paper bag.

A few of our local Indian takeaways put poppydoms and nanny breads in regular brown paper bags although I've no idea why because it doesn't keep them warm in the slightest and a soggy grease-soaked paper bag isn't the best first impression of your food!

[mudskipper]

We used to make paper bag puppets with opening mouths.

They never looked a pro as this one though.

[suityou01]

Reminds me of a simple exchange of text messages between me and SY02 last Sunday, after I had flown the nest and was on my lonely cold train journey down to Gatwick to fly out.

SY01: Forgot me fecking woolly angry birds hat.
SY02: Doh. Better buy a new one at the airport.

SY01: Better yet, I shall fashion one out of an old newspaper. Should the weather become more clement, I shall still have a handy paper boat to amuse myself with in the long dark evenings.

Try explaining that to the kids today.

[barrydidit]

Fantastic.

but where I lived, some of the bags were cones to begin with.

If you got 2oz, it came in a cone, but if you got a quarter, it came in a square bag.
No one in our family, no one in our street, no one I ever knew, ever got a quarter

When I was about 30, I got a quarter of blackcurrant liquorice. In a square bag.
I could feel the decadence and self indulgence for days. It was so wrong, being sooo rich

2oz? INKSPE. We always had a quarter. Off of a stall in Morley Market.


Mind you, that were to share between 3 of us. And we had to sleep in the bag for the rest of the week...

[EternalOptimist]

go back to where you came from, you majestic pea-brain

[EternalOptimist]

Side effects of reaching a ripe old age of 80 Stay Optimistic!

shut your pie-hole fatty

[AtW]

[EternalOptimist]

Up here we called a paper bag a poke. Poke of chips etc...

The best use was making a paper bag into a cone the bottom filled with sugar to dip raw rhubarb and chew on.

Fantastic.

but where I lived, some of the bags were cones to begin with.

If you got 2oz, it came in a cone, but if you got a quarter, it came in a square bag.
No one in our family, no one in our street, no one I ever knew, ever got a quarter

When I was about 30, I got a quarter of blackcurrant liquorice. In a square bag.
I could feel the decadence and self indulgence for days. It was so wrong, being sooo rich

[Cliphead]

Up here we called a paper bag a poke. Poke of chips etc...

The best use was making a paper bag into a cone the bottom filled with sugar to dip raw rhubarb and chew on.

[FatLazyContractor]

Side effects of reaching a ripe old age of 80 Stay Optimistic!

[EternalOptimist]

Some of youse youngsters may not believe this, but there was a time when we didn't have plastic bags.
Yes, indeed. There are people who post here who grew up in the era of the paper bag.

In those days, if you bought some sweeties, meat, fish an chips, it was wrapped up in paper, or came in a paper bag.

Paper bags were great if you were a kid because they rustle. If someone in the class had some jelly babies, they could not sneak one out without the whole class knowing. The sound of a rustling paper bag was the same as the mating sound of the female moose to a moose bull. irresistible.

Then of course, when the jelly babies were gone, you could get the paper bag, close the opening around your thumb, to make a neck, blow into it then burst it with the flat of the hand in a mighty explosion that used to make the cats and dogs run for cover, and gave you a thick ear, if your mum was around.
Alternatively, you could fill the paper bag with water, light a candle in the shed and impress the younger kids by showing them that the paper would not catch fire if you held it over the flame. Which earned another thick ear when your mum found out where all the candles went and there is a power cut coming next Tuesday.
Paper bags made good alternative hankies for a snotty nose on a winters day, bog paper for a big day out to the cut on a Saturday or tinder if a fire was needed in a hurry.

Plastic bags are just not the same. Would you wipe yer bum on a Tesco bag ?


then:-





now:-