Homemaking Tip – Tied Up with String

One of the interesting things about living through several decades is seeing things resurface – like baby names, dress patterns, and . . . colors.  Oh sure, colors are usually renamed – “avocado green” is now “asparagus” and “burnt orange” has become “terra cotta” – but anybody that wore those colors or had household appliances in those shades knows they’re really the same.  I like when vintage becomes modern.  It’s like history has made peace with herself.

Twine and waxed paper are two of those vintage things. 

When I was in grade school, we had a grand hot lunch program.  Mrs. Duffy was a great cook for the mass of kids.  She made all of her rolls by scratch as well as her noodles.  Apple crisp, cinnamon rolls, spaghetti –the smells permeated all three floors of our old brick school.  Everybody looked forward to 11:25 when the first grade class climbed the stairs to the lunch room.  Every ten minutes another class joined the lunch line.  Lunch competed with art, P.E., and after-the-noon-bell-reading for the best part of the day. 

However, as great as our hot lunches were, there was one boy that always got to bring his lunch from home, and I envied him.  I wished I could bring a cold lunch.  His sandwiches came wrapped in waxed paper and when he had finished eating his lunch, he stuck the waxed paper in his pocket and took it out on the playground.  He climbed the tall metal slide, pulled out the piece of waxed paper from his pocket, and waxed the slide.  Every kid called dibs to ride down after he was finished.  We were convinced that that waxed paper rubbing made the slide faster.    

Once Ziploc baggies hit the market, waxed paper was used less and less.  And whereas every home used to have a ball of string in the cupboard to tie a package shut or truss a chicken, it seemed to go the way of the roll of waxed paper – to the back of the cupboard.  But they’re making a cute comeback.  Waxed paper bags are now novelty items and sell for three times that of a plastic bag and a little cone of string sells for $14.   

Or . . . if you never ever quit using waxed paper because you remembered how neatly that boy's sandwiches always looked, and how useful it was for slide polishing and such, well . . . you’ll find it’s as economical as it ever was.  And things wrap up real cute in it, too.  Today I individually wrapped cookie dough brownies in waxed paper and tied them with inexpensive blue twine that I had in the cupboard.  They looked much nicer than if I'd have just plopped them down on a napkin, or even slid them in a baggie with a zipper on top.  It's like they were a package all wrapped up just for you.  

It's a shame all the playground slides are fiberglass now.