Likely you’re not thinking much about paper cups these days, am I right? Normally I’m not either but in one’s eighties, one’s brain thoughts begin to race about like roaches when the lights go on, and so today I began to remember paper cups.

Way back when people in offices actually stood gossiping around a giant bubbling water cooler and weren’t swigging from bottled designer waters as they do today, they drank from paper cups dispensed from, well, a dispenser, which was positioned quite close to the upside-down water cooler. It was tall and glass and one pulled a paper cup from the bottom of it which generally worked successfully, until it jammed and then no one could quench until the paper cup log jam, usually five or six cups, could be torn viciously out of the dispenser.

Back then the paper cups, when they surrendered themselves from the dispenser, came in cone shapes, the bottoms coming to a point. I never understood that. I mean how were we supposed to put the cup down when it was full of water when the bottom was not flat? Ah, sweet mysteries of life. One had to either drink the entire cupful, ball up the cup and toss it (this was pre-recycling days) or to try to remember to only bubble out half a cup in the first place. Oh, there was a place in the big stanchion the bubbler bottle stood on that let one pour undrunk water into it, but I often wondered where that used water went since I never saw anyone drain it.

And why were they called “Dixie Cups” you ask. Well, this is your lucky day because I will solve that mystery for you. It seems that back in the 19-aught aughts, people used to all drink from the same spring using the same dipper which caused lots of those people to later on, to their dismay, drop dead. Finally understanding that this was possibly happening because they were all using public drinking vessels, they were outlawed and lots of people went thirsty. Back then almost every town was a dusty, dry town in summers.

But then a guy, a Harvard drop-out, had a eureka. There were lots of eurekas going on back then. He hailed from Kansas, his name was Hugh Moore and he saw a great market. No need for people to drop dead from contaminated drinking water any longer, because Hugh invented disposable white paper cups! And he named them “Health Cups.”

We humans often take a long time to catch on to things that are right and good for us, especially when they are new, so Mr. Moore’s idea didn’t catch on like a house afire. He also wanted to call his cups by a different name because he began to think “Health Cups” was too antiseptic sounding, too medical.

What has this to do with Hugh Moore’s sanitary white cups? Nothing.

One day he visited a small doll business called the Dixie Doll company, although the owner didn’t know the origin of the Dixie word. Moore liked the sound of it and remembered a relative telling him that in Louisiana stacks of $10 bills had a handwritten “dix” on top, French for “10.” What had this to do with Hugh Moore’s sanitary white cups? Nothing, but he thought about it, took the “Dixie” idea, added “Cups” and voila! Dixie Cups were reborn and became a constantly used item. Thirsty people stopped dropping dead, at least from contaminated water, Dixie cups were also used to serve ice cream and other meltables, to store milady’s earrings on her dresser, paper clips on office desks, but most importantly, the Dixie Cups now had flat bottoms.

LC Van Savage is a local writer. Contact her at LCVS@comcast.net or visit LCVanSavage.com.

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