The
brown paper bag has just become a hundred year old, and we should celebrate.
That
paper grocery bag is a symbol of many good things. We can bring it home from
the food store full of meat and vegetables, and it becomes an image of
prosperity; it brings thoughts of shiny apples, dry cereal, and clean, warm
kitchens-America. When, we fold the bag flat and store it under the kitchen sink
it becomes an image of thrift, of saving everything to use again.
Years
ago, paper bags were made by hand by boys working for grocers. In 1851, a
Pennsylvania school teacher invented a machine to make the bags, but his bags
did not stand upright and could not be folded and stored flat. Then the first modern
bag was produced; it had a flat rectangular bottom and pleated sides. And in
1910, manufactures began producing bags from a tough new kind of paper called Kraft (a German word meaning “strength”).
