Let’s talk about paper towels. Raise your hand if you know where they come from. Trees. Everyone answered trees there, right? Right?! Well… here’s something that surprises so many Americans. You don’t actually need paper towels. I know! I know! It’s gonna be okay, I promise, this is not the apocalypse!
So I actually grew up never using paper towels. We had sponges and dishtowels that cleaned up all the kitchen messes and used rags for all the other messes. As I got older I eventually realized how disturbing this was to most Americans. It wasn’t all that rare for people to say things such as, “You don’t use paper towels? Such a dirty hippie!” or “How inconvenient, you must like making your life more difficult!” This happened regularly! It was like we offended people, by having a different lifestyle choice. Isn’t it funny how people take differences as insult? We certainly weren’t trying to convince anyone to change their own ways, we just simply said, “Oh we don’t have those,” when people asked for a paper towel at our house and handed them a sponge / dishtowel / rag depending on their need.
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Land of Laurel 