Reader from Namibia Adds Information about Brot Bags
This is a “letter to the editor” to my editor at The Quilter magazine, to be exact), in regards to an article I wrote about Bluework Embroidery several years ago. To view similar photos and information, visit an article that is now on our website. European Bluework Embroidery The author of the letter is from Namibia in western South Africa, a country that was partially settled by Germans.
German Brot (bread) bag, collection of Patricia Cummings
Dear Editor:
I am writing to you from Windhoek, Namibia.
I was recently given two of your magazines, one dated September 2007 and one dated November 2007, but a friend who is a missionary here in Africa. In the November issue is an article on Bluework which I found very interesting, in fact I thoroughly enjoyed the whole magazine and have started making the wallet in the September issue.
In the article on Bluework there is a picture of a bag with the word “Brot” on it. Quite rightly the word Brot means bread, but the author seems to be uncertain as to the use of the bag. I remember well when I was a child my mother used hang just such a bag on the outside of the front door with her order for bread and “Brötchen”, small breads, written on a slip of paper and left inside the bag with the relevant amount of money. Early the next morning, the baker would come by and place the bread required in the bag and remove the money. This was in the 1950s and early 1960s. As I understand from friends who lived in Germany at that time and earlier, this was standard practice in the villages. Incidentally, the milkman also delivered milk, cream and yogurt.
With regards
Pat Sivertsen
Windhoek, Namibia
We always appreciate receiving notes from readers. This one was passed on by my editor at the magazine, Laurette Koserowski, who is such a dear soul, in any season.
Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications
