I miss paper bags....
You can still get 'em. If you want to pay for them, that is. I did a double take, the first time I saw them on the shelf in the grocery store.
LOL! I remember going to a "department store," which was where we bought things like bedding, clothing, and some housewares. When we made our purchases, the clerk would wrap our pile of neatly folded items in a paper wrapping and tie the bundle with string. In the "dime store," there were no blister packs or racks. All small items were displayed on big tables divided into little compartments with a "per each" price marker. All our purchases there went into a paper sack. Meat in the grocery store was wrapped in paper, produce was wrapped in absorbent paper before being put into our paper bags.
I have written a couple of times on my own blog about the "good old days." LOL! I remember having an "ice box," that used ICE for cooling. Every Saturday, my sister and I were given a 50-cent piece, and we borrowed the neighbors' Radio Flyer wagon, walked to the service station and bought a 50-pound block of ice, which we trundled back home so my daddy could put it into the ice box for another week's worth of cooling.