We were down with brown back in the day Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. The use of brown paper bags as book covers for our schoolbooks was common and we were able to personalize our books without defacing public property. Brown paper bags were used in cooking and crafts even for making costumes. Many a dispute broke out among siblings on who got the new brown paper bag. Many a kid carried their lunch to school in a brown paper bag while dreaming of that coveted superhero tin lunch pail with a matching thermos. Wrapping paper, bows, cards, and boxes were saved after birthdays and Christmas, with no overflowing garbage cans full of plastic packing, cardboard, and wrapping. We returned milk bottles, soda bottles, and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. Bottle caps were saved for craft projects. Tin cans were washed and reused for tin crafts of all kinds. A large tin coffee can was a sought-after treasure. We made guitars from cigar boxes and broken shovel handles. Wooden crates were never discarded. Their uses were only limited by imagination. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a gas-burning auto every time we had to go two blocks. Kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour fossil-fuel-burning taxi service. We washed the baby's diapers. We dried clothes on a line using wind and solar power. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, rarely brand-new clothing. We learned to modify and make our own clothes. Torn jeans were patched, not purposely destroyed burning energy, and sold for high prices as fashion. Jean shorts were never sold in stores but made from jeans with worn-out knees. Back then, we had one TV, and/or radio, in the house. The TV had a small screen the size of a baby’s diaper, not a screen the size of a bedsheet. We repaired our radios and TVs. There were no mountain-high piles of electronic devices waiting for state-approved disposal. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. Dishes were washed and dried by hand or in drying racks. Families with multiple kids often shared the same bathwater. Cold showers built character and a decreased energy bill. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. We didn’t have riding or power drive lawn mowers,. We used a push mower and the wealthier folks had a gas engine on theirs, but most still required manually pushing. No one had time or energy for gyms and unproductive exercise. We were dog tired from working or playing all day. Most lights were out by 9 PM. We drank from a fountain instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen. We replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. Each room had one electrical outlet, maybe two, not sockets full of power supplies and plugs for everything imaginable. We didn't need a GPS in order to find the nearest burger joint. We weren’t green back then, only the Martians were.
"We returned milk bottles, soda bottles, and beer bottles to the store." A local tavern would fill a customer's pitcher with beer to take home. Several times a day my neighbor friend would carry out the errand for his mom. "Wooden crates were never discarded." My father kept some empty dynamite crates from the mines in the garage.
My grandmother used to ask me go to the hardware store to pick up javel water. She'd give me a glass gallon jug which would be filled from a 55 gallon drum by the store clerk. I forget the exact cost it was either $0.10 or $0.15. I remember having to the rest on the trip back cuz The Jug was heavy, the block I had to travel seemed forever. I wouldn't change it for the world.
@Faye Fox .. supposedly brown bags were cockroach carriers- but they were useful for many other things
So were old postage stamps, but I licked them anyway. Nothing that a dose of horse wormer won't kill off. Horse wormer even sends covid home crying to mama Wu Wu.
My highest-paying jobs were making brown paper bags, although we also made white paper bags. Hoerner-Waldorf Champion Paper Company Duro Bag Company Paper bags are making a bit of a come-back now that states are banning the use of plastic grocery bags.
Some memories at work here in the 'what used to be' category but not many would want to go back to some of those days, the good woman standing over a hot iron in a hot room, ironing clothes for ten or fifteen cents a dozen with a flat iron heated over a wood stove. But it's fun to think back from our space age world.
Sure we were green ! Green Stamps...... Let's see what was the other major stamp, uh I think it was Black Gold stamps in Houston ?