Shopping Old School

Dear Diary,

When the pandemic hit, grocery stores banned reusable grocery bags for safety reasons.  Since I try to avoid single use plastic bags at all costs, I asked for paper bags.  The clerk looked at me strangely.  However, they did have paper bags under the counter and that's what I got.  When I first started grocery shopping over 50 years ago, paper bags was all they had.  Later, when plastic bags came into fashion you were always asked, "Paper or plastic?" by the clerk.  I was thinking about all the ways we used the brown paper bags after the food came home.  We covered our school books with it, my grandmother used it to make patterns for things, cut open and ironed flat I drew and painted on them, we lined drawers with the heavy paper and they were great for absorbing the grease of the fried fish my mother made.  Before paper bags, people used marketing baskets, like this one that my grandfather made nearly 100 years ago and that I still use for my trips to the farm stands.  So, what is old is now new and that is a good thing I think.