The new Ulster County plastic bag ban has not only increased our awareness of how ubiquitous plastic is but also, for some folks, has inspired memories of what life was like before plastic packaging. Thank you to Elaine and Bill Case, Ginny and Bill Esser, Cheryl and Richard Leopold and Mary Ann and Paul Osgood for their memories and observations. All were either born and raised in Gardiner, or have lived here for many years. What follows is a roundtable discussion of sorts, in their own words, of what was…
Mary Ann: “In this town there was nothing. We had no grocery store. We would go to New Paltz to shop. We had our own animals and a big garden. I had milk from goats until I was 8 years old. We then got rid of them and had milk delivered in glass bottles. We had a bread man who came and delivered bread. It was that white bread, Wonder Bread (chuckle). It came in a wax paper bag.”
Cheryl: “My father had a sign on his desk ‘Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.’”
Ginny: “My mother was a stay-at-home mom. She planned her meals every day. We would go over and pick up what we needed for that day. It wasn’t like it is now where we shop for the whole week.”
Alan: “I used to scrape the wax off of the milk container while eating my breakfast cereal and reading the box.”
Bill Case: “My father had a commercial laundry. Everything got wrapped in paper.”
Elaine: “I remember in California, in the late 1940s, we had recycling but we didn’t have plastic. We had a container for metal cans and a pile for newspapers. Your garbage went to the incinerator. I worked in a bakery. You put the bread through the slicer, held it up and made it stay and you put the waxed paper bag right over it.”
Bill Esser: “I worked part-time for an Italian butcher and I would deliver. The meats were wrapped in paper and tied together. There were no bags used. We reused paper bags for garbage and to cover our books.”
Richard: “When I was in high school, I was a grocery clerk and stacked shelves so I was quite intimate with packaging. Dairy, like sour cream, was still packaged in waxed paper containers in the early 60s. At the checkout, we were still bagging in paper bags. Bread was a mix of plastic bags and waxed paper.”
Cheryl: “Where I grew up, we always had our dairy products delivered in a truck. Glass milk bottles were left in a metal container outside the front door. In winter, the milk would freeze and tops would pop up. When you finished the milk, you put the bottle back in the box. The paper bags were heavier than they are now. Bakeries never used plastic. They used tissue paper and boxes for cakes.”
Mary Ann: “After the war, plastic became popular. I remember that Oleo [margarine] came in a plastic pouch and you had to squeeze the pouch.”
Paul: “There were no supermarkets. You went to a grocery for canned goods and bread and things, and there was a meat store. The cheese was cut from a cheese wheel and wrapped in butcher’s paper. My mother would buy in bulk, things like beans would come in a cloth bag and she would scoop it out into a paper bag. We always carried groceries home in paper bags. We reused them. You’d fold them up. You might even bring them back [to the store.] Toothpaste came in metal tubes and a metal cap. You recycled them.”
After reminiscing, the group had varied responses to the way things are today:
Mary Ann: “I liked the way it was before. Now, the plastic that is in the store, we have to throw so much of it away. I would be happier if we went back to the way it was.”
Paul: “I think of all the things made of plastic that would not be available or made of something else. Cars are made of much plastic and are much lighter.”
Bill Case: “One of the things that is going to happen is that we will have biodegradable plastic wrap. It’s available now. One concern is what will the side effects be of this new plastic?”
Elaine: “I like storing things in glass. It is cleaner. I don’t like using plastic in the microwave at all. Glass is great but I love plastic wrap.”
Richard: “It’s a double-edged sword. A lot of these things weren’t necessarily done for our convenience but for the convenience of the manufacturers. It’s lighter packaging for them to transport, it takes up less shelf space, and it’s all about the profit.”
Cheryl: “To be honest, plastic keeps things fresher longer. That’s a convenience.”
Ginny: “Thinking about the ocean that has the grand plastic mess out there, I’m not as happy seeing it as I used to be when I used plastic containers.”
Paul: “Since the plastic bag ban, I don’t see plastic bags on my walks anymore. I’m amazed at how fast it happened… When I see one, I take it!” (chuckle)
Will plastics always be used for food packaging? “Not until something better comes along,” Paul reflected.
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