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We moved out to Ohio a year ago, right across the river from West Virginia. For the six years previous, we were in Washington state and California before that.
So, we went through a year-long saga of bags. Growing up in California, we had paper bags, that's what grocery stores did. And those bags were used for garbage bags at home and a plethora of craft projects. And there was a time we were asked at checkout, "Paper or plastic?" A grand instance of American freedom. But then, at least in California, there came a concern for the trees, so many trees giving up their lives for transporting bananas and bread. Sometimes they would still allow you to get a paper bag, but the store would charge a nickel for it. Then SCIENCE discovered a flotilla of plastic bags in the ocean, killing birds and fish, contributing to global warming. So, we weren't supposed to be given paper or plastic bags, but we were supposed to bring our own cloth bags. (Or the store would sell you a sturdy bag for a dollar... or two or three or five.) And one would go in the store without their bags, and halfway through the shopping trip would remember and have to run out to the car for the bags. Unless you forgot them at home. Then you'd have to buy more.
And then, COVID! Bringing your own bag to the store was, of course, a grave health hazard. Plastic bags were safe for the planet again (on occasion, for a small charge.)
When the disease was sort of, kind of, vanquished, they encouraged reusable bags again in Washington.
But out here in Ohio, grocery stores certainly do not hold back on plastic bags. One loaf of bread in a bag is put into another plastic bag. Two cans of peaches will probably necessitate two plastic bags. Multiple bags are all the rage out here. The baggers seem to get a bonus for the number of bags used. No more than three or four items in two bags (not just one).
Plastic bags multiply in the home like Tribbles. (If you don't know the reference, contact your nearest Trekkie. You might be able to find one here on Ricochet.)
So, I was so glad that someone had found a use for these bags. We visited Elm Grove Methodist Church last week (I was the pulpit fill.) A charming group of people is now using the plastic grocery bags to weave mats for local homeless shelters. Amazingly, these mats are soft and sturdy. Obviously, the blue states that ban plastic bags hate the homeless.
A gentleman in the church built a loom for the purpose of weaving the bags. Women get together every month to put them together. They're surprisingly attractive creations.
Discussion (39)
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I’m glad someone found a good use for the used plastic bags because I love them and consider them one of the greatest inventions of my lifetime, and I couldn’t stomach them getting banned. At least without a replacement of equal utility.
Young people don’t understand what it was like before plastic grocery bags, when the only option was weak, handleless paper bags. They dissolved when in contact with anything wet, which anything cold became as soon as it hit warm air. Did you buy a half-gallon of ice cream? Maybe a 65% percent chance you get it home to your freezer without having to pick it up off the sidewalk, or parking lot, or floor of your trunk because it broke through. Bad enough with ice cream, but what about all the glass bottles that everything used to come in? - a looming disaster every time you went to the store.
Want to carry more than one bag from your car AND unlock your door without putting them down - not happening with paper bags. You have to put them down, and as soon as you do, here comes the neighbors dog to plunge into your bag and run off with your baloney.
But all that changed with the advent of plastic bags. The strength! Double ‘em up and you could carry a couple of bowling balls around - even if they were soaking wet. And the handles! Reduced trips back to the car by at least half. Suddenly, the sidewalks were no longer strewn with forgotten fallen groceries, suddenly people were smiling everywhere you went, and sunbeams abounded. Workplace shootings did go up, but for completely unrelated reasons.
And that’s all I have to say about that.
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I think that someone at sometime somewhere holds the world record for the amount of groceries carried from the car to the house in one trip and We'll never know Who that is.
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Ha! Ha! You’re right and that person is walking around with no idea what a hero they are. What a shame. Could be anybody!
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Mrs. B is a contender.
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Now that’s clever. Bravo for whoever developed the ad hoc loom. I’ve seen similar mats from cast off synthetic marine rope and they are quite snappy and colorful and really useful in wet areas. I can image the same for these. I would use them in the sheds or by the back garage door where we put resting snow shovels.
And the fellowship of making them. Lucky Elm St Methodist.
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