Wax Paper, Brown Paper Bags and Denim

Growing up in a blue collar family, in the 1960’s, working life was about wax paper, brown paper bags and denim.  Both of my parents worked at the General Motor Plants in Dayton, Ohio.   I was one of a few kids whose mothers worked and did not stay at home.  To me it seemed normal for a mother to work to contribute to the household income.  I recall my maternal grandmother talking of her work at Rike’s, a department store in downtown Dayton and just thought it was natural for all mothers to work.  I did not realize until my later years that most of my friend’s mothers did not work.      

A big memory for me was Mom and Dad packing their daily lunch which was usually lunchmeat sandwiches wrapped in wax paper.  The wax paper was folded in such a way that it kept the sandwich fresh and used to form a place mat for eating and catching the crumbs of the sandwich.  These sandwiches, along with a treat of some sort, rounded out their lunches and placed into in a brown paper lunch sack.  Many times these brown paper sacks were saved, folded and reused the next day.  I suppose that depended upon on the strength of the brown paper bag and how long it would last.  Brown paper lunch bags were stocked on the grocery store shelves and very commonly used.  There was no worry about keeping your lunch cold until time to eat.  There was also no time to run out and get fast food from a restaurant if you had forgotten your lunch.  Actually, there were no fast food restaurants until the candy and snack machines came about.        

I remember my mother wearing denim pants to work and black work shoes.  In the summer she would wear these short denim pants that she called ‘knee knockers’ that were manufactured by Levi.  Today we would call these capri’s.  She looked so fashionable in those pants and I longed for the day in which I could wear these cute knee knocker pants.  I never saw her wear them much in everyday life…they were considered ‘work clothes’.  She would wear shorts and tops of many colors but not that denim blue.  My father wore denim pants and work shoes as well but I don’t remember them like I remember Mother’s pants.

You can still find wax paper and brown paper bags at the grocery stores.  These items haven’t changed except that the available brown paper bags seem to be thinner in strength.  People who work can pack their lunches in small coolers with ice packs to keep them cool and prevent the food from not spoiling.  This was not a worry back when.  Today, we have many options of obtaining our lunch, from ordering out to eating out of refrigerated machines.    

As for denim pants, you can now find many brands of denim pants, in different colors and styles.  The usefulness of denim has stood the test of time and proven to be a fashion mainstay.  The blue collar jobs in Dayton are now gone and the manufacturing era has passed.