Today was supposed to be a brown paper bag day - containing a special present for a special person. It got postponed for a week because my foot went nuts after my MRI today. Said friend is a wee bit afraid of what is in the brown paper bag but then again I have teased her just a little bit about what could be in said bag. My friends know that with me said present could be just about anything.
For some people brown paper bags conjure up all sorts of evil mysterious things. For me, they remind me of the olden days when we would have to use a brown grocery bag as a book cover or they would hold my lunch for school. They became nefarious in the early 1900's when they were used as a color litmus test to see if you would be admitted into a party or restaurant, etc. The idea was that one had to be lighter than the paper bag in order to enter.
But did you know that the humble brown paper bag is actually a technological masterpiece that solves many practical problems? Neither did I until I did some research. But if you think about it, unlike a plastic bag, it can stand upright by itself. Plus you don't need an extra hand to hold it open while you fill it. And it has the added bonus that it folds flat for easy storage. It actually took inventors years to come up with a design that would behave this way. Early paper bags had "envelope bottoms" and wouldn't stand up at all. Then in 1867 Margaret Knight invented a machine that could make the standard bag's rectangular "satchel bottom" in a series of three folds. Another inventor added the accordion folds on the sides of the bag.
Today, paper bags have an infinite number of uses. They are used to carry groceries, they are recycled and used to store garbage. They are also used to stuff things in them to carry said items somewhere else. Since they are not transparent, they are used to conceal items from others, like being used as wrapping paper to conceal gifts.
If you are really crafty you can give them to your kids and make homemade masks out of them, or puppets. I remember my brother used to think it a riot to blow a small lunch bag up then smack it and surprise the beejeebees out of me. If you put one upside down on your head, they make an excellent costume. They can be drawn on, colored, penciled, cut, shaped into origami figures, or anything your imagination will take you. My cats loved them and my kids loved to tap the top when they ventured in, making the cat jump and the bag move.
They can also be used in the kitchen - if you place green tomatoes in a paper bag and roll the top down, the tomatoes will ripen. They make it easy to remove candle wax from a rug or carpet - just scrape up as much as you can, then place the paper bag over the wax and run a warm iron over it. The wax will melt and the bag will absorb it. I use paper bags to make patterns too, especially patterns I love since the tissue paper patterns seem to not last long.
My FIL used to cut shapes and designs out of the upper sides of the paper bags. Then he would put sand in the bottom of the bag and place a candle in each. Set the bags (luminaries) outside and light the candle. This was a Christmas eve tradition my kids love. We would take bets on how many bag fires we would have!
But my friend seems to think I have an ulterior motive. Maybe I do. After all, typically brown paper bags conceal contraband—alcohol and pornographic magazines and material.
She won't know until she opens her bag next week.
