Paper Bags with Handles

Paper Bags with Handles Machine

Paper Bags with Handles History
Even as recently as when I was a child all the grocery stores used only paper bags and most of them were paper bags with handles. (I guess it isn't really that recently since my kids thinking I am getting really old).  Somewhere along the line the stores started eliminating paper bags with handles and went to thinner paper bags without handles that they frequently had to double bag in order to prevent a total mess.  Then came the onset of plastic bags that were supposed to save nature and instead ended up cluttering nature with a nasty mess of plastic bags stuck in trees and fields and choking animals.  Every time I drive past a field with those nasty white plastic bags with blue print it makes me wish for paper bags with handles.


Paper Bags with Handles Styles
There are several styles of paper bags with handles.  The original ones are sometimes still available at a high end department store with the paper twisted into what appears to be a small rope handle but it really is paper twisted to give it more tensile strength.   The other kind of paper bags with handles can also still be found at some high end grocery stores and they have strips of paper glued to the sides of the bags.


Paper Bags with Handles Fun
Of course the most fun use of paper bags with handles is trick or treating for halloween.  I can remember literally having one of those large paper bags full to the edge of the top and surprised the handles didn't break off with all the loot I was carrying home.
Another thing we did when I was a kid with paper bags with handles was to make costumes or at least masks.  We would cut out eyeholes and mouth hole and then decorate a face with paint or markers and then pull those handles down to our shoulders.  I have also seen a small child wear one as a spaghetti strap dress costume.  Lots of time and not much money meant all those paper bags with handles that were free with a purchase became part of our creative living as children.