Chewin’ the Fat: Satchels vs. Backpacks
August 15, 2011
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Kids all across the country are getting ready for school. A few have already started. Part of the contemporary back-to-school ritual is buying a new backpack. I never had a backpack that was part of my school gear. In elementary school, we used satchels. In high school, we just carried around all our books in our arms. I don’t even think I had a backpack in college. Did you have a satchel, backpack or both?
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In grade school I had a satchel, or a book bag, kind of looked like what they call “messenger bags” today. It had a big buckle on the flap and a long strap, and was red plaid. There was kind of a distinctive odor to it, probably from whatever made it water-repellent in those days, not unpleasant but definitely book-baggy. I came to associate that plus the odor of wet wool (from my winter scarf and coat) with the school year. After grade school, of course, we were way too cool to carry bags of any kind and lugged our books and notebooks and yellow Pee-Chee folders around loose. How else were we going to get a gallant young man to help us carry them? We put on book covers made from brown paper grocery bags which were perfect for doodling. Now they have fancy stretch fabric covers.
True! I loved the PeeChee folders too. In fact I think I still have one. That was how I learned my multiplication table. hahaha
Never had a satchel. Mom had 7 kids, with very little money to spare. Backpacks didn’t exist until my kids started going to school, at least that’s when I noticed them. Sometimes, they used them, sometimes not. There for a while, they were wanting the kids to have see-thru back packs. I don’t see them anymore. Then at work, low and behold, I had a briefcase.
Mary,
I carried a briefcase at work for many, many years, too! I see some of the little kids using rolling bags to carry their books. That is just doesn’t seem quite right to me.
I didn’t carry a backpack til college. I’m a teacher and now all the kids have a bag of some sort to carry their stuff in – backpacks and book bags seem to be the most popular around here.
Lise,
I think most of them here have some kind of bag, too
Nope, no backpack here either. My mom did however sew me a bag for my books. Out of my old skirts. hahaha Thought it was gorgeous.
We carried our books loose in grade school (late 70s) and high school (early 80s), and I don’t remember it being a problem. We also made our own book covers out of paper grocery bags. I didn’t have a back pack until college, and the cool way to carry it was to sling it over one shoulder.
Nope…no backpack OR satchel for me. I just carried them ALL! Back in the 70′s I don’t think we even knew what a backpack was. And really…I probably couldn’t have told you what a “satchel” was, either.
Shoot if you saw the load of books and notebooks that gets sent home daily with our kids , what they really need is an xl suitcase on wheels and a horn ! My poor girls carry around backpacks that must weigh over 50 pounds each. I don’t recall using a backpack when I was in high school, but we had study hall back then and we did our homework then. and if I did take a book home I just carried it in my arms.
Ginger
Ginger,
I don’t think we had to carry around the load of books that kids do today….that’s for sure!
I had a satchel probably through about the 3rd grade. From then on I just carried my books in my arms. Getting ready to go back to school was a teat for us. We got a trip to town to buy our school clothes and supplies. This and Christmas was about the only time you got anything new. I was so proud of everything, I would spread it all out on the bed so my daddy could see it when he got home from work.
Connie,
Back to school shopping was special for us, too. That was one of the few times we got a new pair of shoes….tennis shoes. The other pair of shoes we owned were our “Sunday shoes”. Times were much simpler, no doubt about that. We could all stand to adopt some of those old-fashioned practices.
I had a red plaid book satchel for grade school, I remember it well.(It’s in my “first day of school” picture my Mama took for first grade). Then in high school, everyone had those blue cloth notebooks that we wrote all over, and stacked our books on top of them and tried to carry them, not always successfully!!! I keep calling my granddaughter’s backpack a “book bag” and every time I say it she asks me what I said because she has never heard it called that before!
Ann,,
My husband used to love to irritate our kids by calling their backpacks “satchels”. I had a red plaid satchel for first grade, too!