Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Brown Paper Bags

     When I was a kid, they didn’t ask at the grocery store if you wanted paper or plastic bags.  They just put your stuff in a brown paper bag, and that was that.  After we emptied the bags at home, we folded them flat and stashed them between the fridge and counter.  There they stayed until we needed another garbage bag in the kitchen. We would fold the top edge down a couple of inches to keep the bag open, and it stood open on the kitchen floor ready to receive our garbage.  They worked well for dry or mostly dry trash.
     One of my earliest memories involves a brown paper garbage bag.  Why this is so will become apparent. 
     When I was four or five, I was running around the house one day playing in (what I must assume was) my usual state of oblivion. This was before I started school, and being the baby of the family, I was the only child home with Mother.  I stopped briefly in the kitchen where Mother was working, and the next thing I knew she was smacking me on my skinny behind, demanding, “What is the MATTER with you?”
     To this day, I still don’t know what was the matter with me.  The sudden spanking snapped me out of whatever I was in and also completely ruined my aim—I was peeing in the garbage bag.
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5 comments:

  1. gigiFebruary 15, 2011 at 8:33 AM

    That is the same place we stored our brown paper bags. Funny memory, David.

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  2. NancyFebruary 15, 2011 at 10:07 AM

    Very funny, David! You told that story so well and I can just see it all in my mind. Of course, I know the setting and the people and it was a sweet rememberance of them, now gone. Where did that little boy go? I even heard mother's voice when she said "What is the MATTER with you!" LOL Thanks for the memories, David!

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  3. avaFebruary 15, 2011 at 11:08 AM

    That made me laugh. It reminds me of a book I was listening to the other day. The woman starts thinking of something and then she remembered she was in the midst of falling to her death. She said,"Dang, ADD." It made me laugh out loud.

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  4. zippityzernsMarch 13, 2011 at 5:08 AM

    It's not a paper bag issue. It's a boy issue. Once boys peed in paper bags, now they . . . still pee in paper bags, or garbage cans, or on the tires of Lincoln Town cars, or . . .

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  5. NancyJune 16, 2011 at 12:04 PM

    I went back looking for another entry from you, but alas, no... Reading your story again reminded me of how you always think outside the box, David, but this time outside the bag!lol Miss you, miss seeing your sweet face! Glad Kari and Mark and Spencer got a chance to meet up with you all! Hey, how about a new story now!

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