Plastic

Since so many people commented (on Facebook, not here on my blog) about my last post, which mentioned something from the 1940s, I thought I'd talk about a similar topic today: plastic.

Plastic? What's historical about that?

A while after the end of World War II my daddy brought home a gift for me. It was a bright orange canoe to play with in the bathtub and was made out of a new material called plastic. Apparently the material had been developed for military use, but could now be used for other purposes.

The canoe was fun to play with, but that wasn't the most exciting thing about it for me. Every time my parents had guests the grown-ups asked me to bring out my toy to show them and they all wanted to touch and feel that new material. The grown-ups admired my toy!

Unfortunately the plastic was brittle and the canoe only lasted a few months before it shattered.

Of course it wasn't long afterwards that other things made of plastic appeared on the market and less fragile forms of the substance were developed.

Some of those things, like the baggies that replaced waxed paper for taking sandwiches to school, were considered wonderful, too.

Today plastic is everywhere, and that substance has become a major problem since it's taking over landfills and never decomposes.

What's the first plastic thing you can remember?