A month or so ago, I happened to notice two pallets of peach lugs placed very prominently just inside the entrance to the local grocery store.
Now in the past 50 years or so, that was never of interest to me. If the wife wanted to can peaches, well, it was up to her. For the past half century or so, she has been in charge of the kitchen. For the past couple of years, that is no longer the case.
When we retired, she let it be known, she was tired of cooking and wanted to back out of that household chore. Since we both retired the same day, I figured it wouldn't hurt me to take up something new. Consequently, I pay a lot more attention to goods in the grocery store than I have in my entire life.
So when I saw those peach lugs there, I thought to myself "What in the world?? There are no individual wrappers on these peaches!!??"
My thought process continued "Well, the best part of the fall canning season has just disappeared."
Now, I don't know how many years peaches have been sold by the lug without individual wrappers. But I do know, that canning season was looked forward to, every year, just for the peach wrappers.
For those of you that are a little younger, or, have had electric service all your lives. The significance of peach wrappers may escape you. So allow me to introduce you to a small part of life off the grid. The outhouse.
Now modern outhouses with their open pit are indeed very similar to the outhouses of old. But one distinct difference is in how the pit is dealt with when it becomes full. Nowadays, the pit is usually pumped out by a pumping company. And everything better be soft and squishy to pass through the pump.
The outhouses of old were merely moved over a few feet to a new hand dug pit. The dirt from the new pit was used to cover and mound over the old, almost full, pit. In those old outhouses, there was no need to worry about what was dropped into the pit. It was never going to leave.
So......The --ahem-- toilet paper of choice was in fact, toilet paper. But very few homesteaders without electricity, could afford that store bought stuff. Consequently, mail order catalogs were most often pressed into service. Sears, Montgomery "Monkey" Wards, and later, J.C. Penny catalogs.
I've heard it said that in some parts of the country, corn cobs were used. I've never personally had the experience, so I can only imagine how uncomfortable that must have been. We always used the thinner black and white pages first. Those heavier colored and varnished pages were the last to be used. For several reasons. But discomfort and ah - - - smearing, were at the top of the list.
At any rate, when the peach papers came around in late summer, we all thought it was the best and we looked forward to it all year.
It seems that many people long for the "Good Old Days". While peach papers, in September, for the outhouse may have been a simple pleasure for simpler times. I sure don't miss the other eleven months. especially those winter months with temps at thirty below! Not that August with temps in the nineties with nary a breeze was any better. Phew!! I shouldn't have conjured up that little memory.
Missing peach papers - - - - just seems like a small part of Americana was missing that day too.
For those that are homesteaders and like to be "prepared". If you have the luxury of a pit toilet that can be moved, are you stocking old phone books? They take up a lot less space than toilet paper, work OK, and cost nothing in most cases. Hard to beat that combination.