I wouldn’t think it was humiliating when most of the other families in the area were in the same boat.
Plain white flour sacks - and feed sacks, which were also saved for the same purposes - would have been used to make underwear, nightclothes, or household linens like dish towels. The plain white sacks often came with instructions printed on them, explaining how to remove the ink that was used to print the contents and the manufacturers’ name (and the ink removal instructions…). Other sacks were printed with patterns that wouldn’t look out of place in clothing. Plaids and checks were often used for men’s and boys’ shirts, while flowery patterns made women’s and girls’ dresses and blouses. It wouldn’t be immediately obvious where the fabric came from, except to other families who were also saving flour and feed sacks for the very same thing.
The ability of the cigarette beetle, Lasioderma serricorne (F.) (Coleoptera: Anobiidae), to infest wheat flour under packaged and unpackaged conditions was investigated in the laboratory at 27 ± 2°C and 75% ± 5% relative humidity. Five common packaging materials, namely, vacuum plastic bags, kraft paper bags, nonwoven cloth bags, aluminum foil bags, and woven plastic bags, were investigated. Adults and eggs of L. serricorne were released on different packaged wheat flour or on unpackaged wheat flour, and infestation levels (number of live adults and larvae) were determined after 45 days. When adults were released on wheat flour, the infestation degree varied depending on the package materials. The highest infestation was observed in refined wheat flour packaged in nonwoven cloth bags. With wheat flour packaged in kraft paper bags exposed to adults or eggs, there was no insect infestation or insect infestation was negligible (mean population, <1.3). With wheat flour packaged in aluminum foil bags and vacuum plastic bags exposed to adults or eggs, there was no insect infestation. Damage to the packaging materials along the folds or edges was found in nonwoven cloth bags and woven plastic bags. Therefore, both aluminum foil and plastic bags had the greatest resistance to package invasion by L. serricorne.
Back in the 1930’s we lived on a farm in Southern Illinois. I can remember both my mother and my grandmother making dresses out of flour sacks (which were printed in pretty patterns precisely for this purpose). I don’t remember any sense of humiliation from either of them - they were both used to making their own clothes, and were quite glad when dad brought home a few sacks of flour.
Very likely most of the posters on this board have no idea of how different the world was back in those days, particularly in rural areas. And it was (with the exemption of medical and dental stuff) a really pleasant world. We hadn’t even heard of Donald Trump.
Sugar, too. Google “2008 Georgia sugar refinery explosion.” It’s the only non-storm event I ever remember ISO (Insurance Services Office) assigning a cat (catastrophe) number to.
