Oh, yes! Doesn't anyone remember ""Flav-r-Straws"? They were paper with
a flexible neck and a strip of cardboard down the inside impregnated
with flavoring for your milk. I remember then as ca. 1960.

Marty Pickands

>>> [log in to unmask] 03/07/06 10:03 PM >>>
I don't have much memory of plastic straws...since I didn't grow up
(and
still don't) drinking sodas...or drinks from fast food establishments.
But...I seem to remember using flexi-straws (bendible) - and that
would
mean plastic - no? ...as a kid (1960s)...when we were sick...and mom
used them to make it easier for us to drink. ???  I remember the straw
box with a clown face on it, even...but, those may have been the waxed
paper ones. ??  I bet she still has it in her drawer!

Did you know...  In 1888, Marvin Stone patented the spiral winding
process to manufacture the first paper drinking straws.  ?

Otherwise, I'm coming up empty-handed searching online (even tho Sarah
didn't want an online source) for development of plastic straws.

Just called my mom, and Yep...the box of straws is in the drawer I
remember (16 of the original 40 remain).  It is 'Scoopy Plastic
Flexible
Straws,' with Scoopy the Safe-T-Cone Clown...and there's even the
dates
of 1965-1973 on the box.  
But...here's a webpage about them (more or less). Ha!
http://scoopy.anastrophe.com/ 

And here's a box, from 1963, selling on e-bay:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/Vintage-1963-Scoopys-Tuff-Tip-Flexible-STRAWS_W0QQite

mZ6610609597

Yet in 1957...the Scoopy brand staws were paper - with a colored
stripe
(different colors per pack):
http://www.antiqnet.com/detail,vintage-advertising-paper,672919.html 

Boy...that takes me down memory lane.  :o)

Yes...I know...I get a bit off the track.  But, at least Sarah knows
the
transition from paper to plastic straws was some where between 1957
and
1963...probably. ???  Oh wait, the ebay straw box doesn't show the
word
'plastic' tho... ??  Would paper straws flexi-bend tho?



>-----Original Message-----
>From: Dan Allen [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
>Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2006 3:17 PM
>To: [log in to unmask] 
>Subject: Re: Drinking straws
>
>
>Drawing only from memory and oral history, friends and I 
>remember using 
>waxed paper straws well into the 1960s. I personally believe 
>the shift to 
>plastic occurred in the late 1960s coinciding with the rise of 
>MacDonalds, 
>the Krystal, Dairy Queen, and other fast food chains.  Now the 
>damn things 
>are in every field and stream near a road:(
>
>dan allen
>cumberland Research group, inc.
>
>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "Sarah Miller" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2006 12:13 PM
>Subject: Drinking straws
>
>
>> Does anyone know of a citable reference (preferably
>> not from the internet) for the beginning date of the
>> plastic drinking straw and/or the date around which it
>> came into common use?  I have info on the history of
>> the drinking straw in general, and a date for flexible drinking 
>> straws, but nothing about specific dates for the plastic drinking 
>> straw.
>>
>> Any suggestions?
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Sarah
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Sarah E. Miller
>> Kentucky Archaeological Survey
>> 1020 A. Export Street
>> Lexington, KY 40506
>> USA
>>
>> phone: 859-257-1944
>> fax:     859-323-1968
>>
>> __________________________________________________
>> Do You Yahoo!?
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>> 
>