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Sliced bread is the best thing since… umm… wow, I really don’t know how to finish that sentence. Because sliced bread was first sold in 1928, a vast majority of us probably have no idea what it’s like to go to a store and not be able to buy pre-sliced bread. I mean, it sounds like such a silly thing, but if you’re anything like me, you mangle the crap out of a lovely, freshly-baked loaf of bread when you try to slice it. And whereas a loaf is typically 12 or more slices, my hack job will garner you about six slices of asymmetrical bread weeping crumbs like it’s Sally Field at the Oscars.
Um. I digress. Today we say Happy 81st Birthday to a simple yet life-changing invention by sharing a few facts about it.
1. We have Iowan Otto Frederick Rohwedder of Davenport to thank for the convenience of reaching into a bag and pulling out a single slice of bread. It took him 13 years to perfect the contraption, which sliced the bread and then wrapped it in waxed paper and held the slices together with pins. One of his machines was sold to the Chillicothe Baking Company in Chillicothe, Missouri, which is where the first sliced loaf was sold on July 7, 1928. That’s not him in the picture, by the way, it’s just his slicer.
2. Not as many people seem to recognize Gustav Papendick, who invented the thing that keeps the sliced bread in form long enough to get it neatly into a bread wrapper. And I suppose “Best Thing Since The Tray that Used to Go in the Bottom of Bread Wrappers a Long Time Ago” is sort of a handful to say, and not really as catchy. Papendick improved upon Rohwedder’s wrapping method, which left the slices in a sloppy pile. Papendick’s design kept the slices neat and orderly by using a tray in the bottom of the bread wrapper.
3. “The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread” was actually an ad campaign by Wonder Bread from the 1930s. You have to admit that it’s an impressive slogan that has wormed its way into vernacular not even remotely related to bread even three quarters of a century later.
4. Or did those two invent sliced bread as we know it today? The Battle Creek, Michigan, Visitor and Convention Bureau claim that they sold the first loaf of sliced bread. C’mon, guys, you have cereal – let Missouri have bread. There are enough grains for everyone. Anyway, if you think Chillicothe, Missouri, is taking Battle Creek’s claim lying down, you’re wrong. “When pressed recently, Battle Creek’s Historians were unable to produce proof,” the town’s website smirks.
5. Maybe some of you do remember buying a loaf of unsliced bread at the grocery store (without any other option): during WWII, a ban was placed on sliced bread in order to preserve plastic. What? Well, because pre-slicing the bread exposed the soft inside to the air, the Food Administrator decreed that the plastic wrapping of sliced bread must be thicker than the wrapping of unsliced bread in order to keep the slices from prematurely drying out. So to save on plastic, no pre-sliced bread was sold for about three months in 1943. The public raised such a stink about how much time they were wasting slicing bread, the ban was lifted almost as soon as it was put into effect.
6. When sliced bread was first sold, an ad ran in the Chillicothe newspaper explained how to use the newfangled product in four easy steps. First you had to open – not tear – the package, then remove the pins holding the slices together, then remove the slices of bread, and finally, fold the package back down just so in order to preserve freshness. Who knew it could be so complicated?
7. At least one other town can legitimately claim to be the home of “Sliced Bread” – Middletown, Connecticut. That’s where NASCAR driver Joey “Sliced Bread” Logano is from. He got his nickname because, obviously, he’s the greatest thing since. How else would you get a nickname like “Sliced Bread”?
So, what do you think is the greatest thing since sliced bread? Share in the comments!
Comments (14)
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So, who invented the plastic tab that holds the bread bag closed?
Love the Sally Fields analogy by the way.
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posted by tpal on 7-7-2009 at 3:45 pm
I’m confused. If it was first sold sliced in 1928, how is it 86 years old?
posted by Hyacinth on 7-7-2009 at 3:54 pm
Caught the correction! Thanks! I thought my math skills were failing me again!
posted by Hyacinth on 7-7-2009 at 4:21 pm
@Hyacinth No, i’m just an idiot :)
posted by Stacy Conradt on 7-7-2009 at 4:30 pm
This is great, I’ve often wondered about that saying. Another thing I’ve been wondering – when did they start using strips in the road for lane markings? And how did they decide on the white versus yellow and solid versus dashed lines?
posted by carol on 7-7-2009 at 8:51 pm
The best think since sliced bread? That’s easy! The Backscratcher! Awwwwww.
posted by John on 7-7-2009 at 11:24 pm
While we are wondering about things, I noticed while driving through Alabama that everyone on the road pulled over and stopped and many people got out of their cars for a funeral. This was a divided highway and I was surprised. I hadn’t seen anyone do that in years. I know it is to pay respect, but I’m curious about the process, rules, traditions, etc.
posted by Karen on 7-8-2009 at 6:29 am
@ Karen:
Your comment made me long for a place that does that. I can only imagine that many people up here (near D.C.) would feel put out even by the expectation that they pull over for a funeral procession (not everyone here, but many). I’m glad that there are still such decent areas of the country. I’m military and I lived overseas for a few years, and I feel like I moved to the most chaotic area of the country for my first tour back in the states. I don’t know if I could survive the humidity down in Alabama, but I really respect that they have such a semblance of neighborliness.
posted by Brandy on 7-8-2009 at 9:18 am
@Brandy
I live in the DC area, while yes I agree many people around here would complain about the traffic nuisance, I still pull over for a funeral procession – I thought you were supposed to? But then again, I am a G.R.I.T.S…
Granted I can’t see east bound 66 pulling over for a procession in the west bound…
posted by Hastings on 7-8-2009 at 10:30 am
Not that this thread has anything to do with sliced bread…
sliced bread…
Best thing since? Sliced bread from the Great Harvest Bakery. The one in St. Louis not only sells sliced loaves, but they sold sandwiches at lunch on any variety you wanted. Sigh. I wish I could convince the VA branch that there’s a reason for the term “best thing since sliced bread” – I’m like you Stacy, my slicing skills leave much to be desired…
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posted by Hastings on 7-8-2009 at 10:33 am
As long as we’re talking heat and humidity in the Deep South… I’m in Mississippi and the “greatest thing SINCE sliced bread,” maybe greatest thing ever, (forget about all those trifling, life-saving medical discoveries) is air conditioning!
posted by Shannon on 7-8-2009 at 10:36 am
Here I am, dating myself again – when I was little bitty, back in the mid-fifties, my grandma would walk to the bakery at the far end of town, passing at least two others on the way, because at the Popular Bakery, she could get 5 unsliced loaves for a dollar. Oh, just thinking about it brings back the memories! Still warm and fragrant from the oven, it would be sliced and slathered with butter and home made strawberry jam….. yummy! When I got a little older and could ride my bike that far, I would be dispatched to bring the bread for Grandma. Two bundles: three loaves together and two loaves together, wrapped in white paper that was coated with wax on the inside, folded just so and tied up with string. When I got into high school, one of my first after-school jobs was at the Popular Bakery, waiting on customers and cleaning up. I learned to use the bread slicer, which looked a lot like the one in the photo. Great post, thanks! I enjoyed reading it.
posted by Mama9cats on 7-8-2009 at 11:45 am
To comment on the customs of funeral processions, on Long Island NY most people just make sure to give them the right of way. It would be a wonderful thing to see people pulling over (I have lived in NY my whole life and have never seen that happen)… here there is just too much traffic and everyone is always in so much of a rush it would probably cause an accident.
And my vote for the greatest thing since sliced bread would be the DVR.. now that I have it I can’t ever live without it!
posted by Kristine on 7-8-2009 at 1:16 pm
@ Hastings
Nothing here would surprise me…my hubby was going Northbound on 301 one morning to work and I guess a pick-up truck in front of him went off the road (the driver fell asleep) and he watched the guy being ejected…he told me that only 3 people (including himself) stopped to help, out of all of those drivers during rush hour. He has no medical training but he still tried to do something. If people around here are so callous that they wouldn’t do anything for a bleeding and broken human on the side of the road, then I would expect they wouldn’t stop for a funeral procession even though it is the law…:(
posted by Brandy on 7-8-2009 at 9:31 pm