paper poke

[19Dawn76]

My grandfather always called bags or sacks pokes. A paper bag was a paper poke. I was doing some on line shopping and found a gift basket company that was calling sausage in cloth bags sausage in a poke. I was just wondering if anyone knows why bags were called pokes.

h

 

[sfw2]

I don't know, but my husband's grandmother, from WV, used "poke" to describe a paper grocery bag, too.

 

[cmjust0]

Dunno.. All I know is that you're never supposed to buy a pig in a poke, because it might be a cat. Best you can hope for is that the guy trying to sell you a pig in a poke accidentally lets the cat out of the bag before you buy it.

Sorry.. Didn't mean to get your goat or anything.

(I kill me)

 

[Fudgie]

Poke = a bag containing a definite amount which varied according to the commodity.
Examples: poke of bran, 1875; of corn, 1648; of hops, 1883; of madder (20 cwt), 1347; of silver, 1733; of pardon, 1377; of pence, 1575; of plums, 1581; of wool, c. 1500.

I would say that it is almost a unit of measure from earlier days!

 

[Fudgie]

Quote:
LOL you are good!

 

[raroo]

Sausage in a poke. That sounds funny all on its own.

(Excuse my immature sense of humor)