A Most Unusual Paper Bag

It was a simple paper bag with paper handles. Last week after doing our grocery shopping I approached the check-out counter at the supermarket and asked the check-out lady to put my cans of soup in “paper and plastic, please”. So she stuck the paper bag into a plastic one and filled it up with my heavy cans of soup. Yes, I know that I should be using the cloth bags that live in the trunk of my car, but I keep forgetting to bring them into the store.

So the other day after putting the cans of soup on our groceries shelf I removed the plastic bag from the paper one. The plastic bags go into my pocket when I go out to take our dog Emmy for her bathroom break walk. Need I say more? But before I folded up the paper bag and before I stored it with the other paper bags that my wife uses to recycle the many newspapers we receive daily, I decided to look at the bag more carefully. There was something about this bag that was different from all of the other paper bags we have received at the supermarket.

First of all, this bag immediately said “please hold both handles”. Not only was it polite (it said “please”) but it wanted to point out to me that it had paper handles. It was not like the other bags that have no handles and are hard to hold or carry. In addition to being polite, this bag was a “Dura Handle-Bag” which is (it told me in no uncertain terms) the original super strength handle bag! It also gave me its website address, not every common bag has that ! But it also told me that it can hold 1/6 Bbl. According to Wikipedia, “Bbl.” is the abbreviation for oil barrel which is one of several units of volume, with dry barrels, fluid barrels (UK beer barrel, U.S. beer barrel, oil barrel), etc. So it turns out that my friendly paper bag can hold 1/6 of the contents of a barrel of oil, if it wanted to. But I’m sure it would rather hold cans of soup or other groceries, oil is very messy and easily soaks through paper.

According to my paper bag’s website its creator is the Dura Bag Manufacturing Company which is located at 1600 Prospect Boulevard in Corinth, Mississippi. If you’d like to call them you can do so by dialing their toll-free number: 800-978-6783. The website also told me that “Dura Bag now Leads the Way With 100% Recycled Paper Handle Shopping Bags”, and that these Bags that look like my paper bag are “Now in Stock”. Google Satellite reveals the Dura-Bag plant as a large one level facility with lots of trailer trucks nestled around its perimeter, ready to transport Dura Bag’s merchandise. Corinth Northern Mississippi International Airport is an easy drive from the Dura-Bag plant. The Dura Bag Manufacturing Company was founded in 1953 by Mr. S. David Rose and is still privately owned by the Rose family. Charles Rose, who became President and Chief Executive Officer in 1987, now runs the company started by his father. Today, Dura Bag is the largest paper bag manufacturer in the world with a large facility in Yugoslavia.

The website also tells me that customer preferred Dura-Bag Handle Bags make the checkout counter environmentally-friendly and provides for an easier consumer carryout . They are available handle-down or their “Original” 1/6 Handle BagTM patented by Dura, this bag assures a reliable grip and a comfortable load. Plain or with customized printing in up to three colors on four sides. The paper is White, Recycled Kraft and comes in 1/6 and 1/7 Bbl. sizes. We now know what “Bbl.” means.

On further inspection I found more interesting details. My bag was made on April 20, 2010 with serial number AL43C. I don’t know what the serial number means, but the date triggers my memory because for the first eight years of my life in Germany April 20 meant a holiday, no school, parades and swastika flags and marching storm troopers because it was Hitler’s birthday. Since my bag was recycled and recycled paper can be remanufactured countless times, who knows what shredded material was used to create it, the recycled paper could even be made from memories. To testify to that fact the bag carries the three-arrow recycled symbol with the words “Recyclable, Renewable, Resource”.

But the most amazing story that my paper bag had to tell me was that it was made by Ana Fernanduez and M. Lagucha. Not only did they make the bag but they made it with “pride”! 

In trying to find out more about Ana Fernanduez I found 83 year old Esther Fernanduez who lives in Fort Campbell, Alabama and has a relative named Ana R. in Corinth, MS and an Ana who lives in Warsaw, AL. All within commuting distance from Dura Bag. According to Report.com, the trusted information source, there is also a Manuel Lagucha living in Corinth, MS. For $39.95 each, I can find out more about both Ana and Manuel. The information that Report.com will provide includes a Comprehensive Background Report from their exclusive premium databases. Included are age, possible current address, up to 20 year address history, phone numbers, bankruptcies, tax liens and judgments, property ownership, possible relatives, possible roommates, aliases / maiden names, neighbors, marriages and divorces, dea (Drug Enforcement Administration) registrants, and website ownership. So our personal privacy is worth just $39.95!

But without spending the $39.95 I already know that both Ana and Manuel are proud of the bags that they produce and probably very happy to have a job with Dura Bag. 

They are also secure in their future knowing that most environmental conscious citizens like myself leave their cloth shopping bags sleeping in the trunk of their cars when they go grocery shopping.

(c) Peter Adler Fort Lee, NJ, USA