I’m not sure when I first began noticing the arcane titles at the tops of paper bags (samples enclosed), but, seeing them once, I began to note others in great variety. Since they don’t seem to indicate paper weight or bag size, what are they? And why the Boy Scout names? –Mary Shen Barnidge, Chicago
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
No argument, the marks on paper bags can be pretty strange. Your samples include one that consists of a flag on which is inscribed ADVANCE 4, and beneath that the enigmatic word WA-HA. This must be the Boy Scout name you refer to, although the influence of the Shriners cannot be entirely discounted. Another set of marks consists of the word TRINITY above an inverted triangle, with, in one version, the word TOREADOR below, while another has TOREADOR SQUAT. I am familiar with the concept of doodly-squat, of course, but must confess that toreador squat is, to me at least, a notion that is entirely new.
Toreador and Toreador Squat are natural kraft bags made by Trinity Bag & Paper Company–the Squat variety, as we might have predicted, being squatter in shape than the regular kind. You also enclosed samples of Wolf and Tornado bags; both are white SO grocer bags, the former made by Union Camp Corporation, the latter by Trinity.
