"Bags" (Or, "My 7th Grade Book Carrying Problems")
If you've ever been in a situation where you have simply too many things to carry, you'd know how handy it is to have some kind of a bag. This is especially true if your scenario dictates that you have to be ready to get up and move in a hurry. Case in point: I was at jury duty a few weeks back and every time my name was called, I really had to do some quick juggling to get my belongings together and depart from my seat in the waiting room. I had my laptop, a book, a bottle of water, 3 different forms, my jacket, and a bunch of other little things like my phone, my iPod, etc. Granted, my laptop was in a case already, but there wasn't much room left in there for other things. So, I shoved what I could in my pocket, grabbed things under my arms, slung the laptop on my shoulder, and hobbled gingerly hoping that I would make it to my destination without losing anything. It was a real pain in the ass.Well, I've been noticing how often that's happening lately and how I regularly find myself thinking, "I wish I had a bag." Or in cases where I already have one, "I wish I had a bigger bag" or "more bags. And it got me to thinking about those ol' school days and the problems that existed simply carrying your books around school.
Using a bag—a duffel bag or knapsack—was not particularly cool back then. It was common enough, but it wasn't considered the cool, ideal, or preferred way of doing things. Now, I don't really care all that much about being cool, but back in 7th grade, I was probably a little more concerned. Well, not about being cool, but about avoiding looking uncool. 7th graders are all about not being uncool. They're old enough to care about peer acceptance, but usually too young to get off on a very strong sense of individualism. So I was going to go "sans duffel bag"—not only with regard to bringing my shit to and from school, but also (and especially) in between classes. I was going cold-turkey on the bag thing.
Right off that bat, though, I had problems. In my junior high, we were not permitted to go to our lockers any time we felt like it. There were four designated times in the day where we could: before homeroom, before and after lunch, and at the end of the day. Prior to lunch was usually not too much of a problem for me, but post-lunch, I had four classes and they were all "real" subjects (not gym, not study hall, etc.) So I had to carry around four huge-ass textbooks and four corresponding notebooks (This was before I got down with the Trapper Keeper and just started throwing all my crap in the same notebook). So, if you do the math, that's eight books to carry. Four of them were heavy and bulky, and four of them were made of flimsy, malleable, slippery plastic—connected only by binders that periodically came apart and spewed your loose-leaf paper all over the place. Between the heavy and the slippery, it was an awful combination. Damn, I wouldn't want to carry eight books like that now. If I had to bring those eight books out from work to the parking lot today without a bag, it's likely I'd drop them about half-way through parking lot.
And that's NOW. What about then? When I was 91-pound 7th grader with twerpy 7th-grade-boy arms and muscles? It wasn't a pretty site.
It was right around then, too, that I learned that there was an effeminate way and a masculine way to carry your books. The females had it made. They were able to carry their books like Marcia Brady did—cradling them in front of their chests, sort of hugging them and holding them tight to their bodies. Guys were supposed to carry them under one arm and off to the side. Much more difficult, much harder to control. Eight books under my arm!
Well, I didn't know that there was a correct way for me to hold my books to avoid ridicule and simply trying to hold onto them outside class one day, I had them cupped in front of me. Lucky me, the school asshole pointed it out when he accused me of carrying my books "like a girlie-girl." So I had to change my ways for fear that they would conclude that I "was gay" because of how I was holding my books.
Now, add to all these problems the fact that in those days, it was common practice for other guys to "deck your books." That means that in between classes, other male students would often try to knock your books out of your arms so they'd crash down to the ground in a huge mess. This was practiced by both your friends (good-naturedly) as well as bullies (mean-spiritedly). Either way, it left you scurrying over a pile of books and papers in the middle of a heavily crowded hallway of moving students. When we carried eight books under our arms, it was a fight that was easy to lose. All someone had to do was sneak up behind you and...POKE!
One product that was supposed to make things easier was that giant, green rubber-band with the little metal hook-thingie and latch that you were supposed to wrap around your books and pull tight. Yeah, right. Those things made life way worse! You had to adjust the size to fit each different load you carried and it was difficult to do and it invariably never snugged up well and the damn books would be sliding out all over the place. It was the same story, but now you also had this flat, rubber snake to have to deal with, too. It would fall to the ground and what not. Even if you did master the use of this BS device, it would surely break within a couple of weeks.
At the end of every period, it was essentially the same struggle, grabbing all that stuff and having to high-tail it to class in four minutes. It was like my jury-duty experience 7 times a day, 5 days a week.
So, I conceded defeated and started bagging it after a few weeks. Best move I ever made. It wasn't real macho, but, hey....no one would have thought I was even if I did master the book carrying thing.
Throughout all my school years, I continued to be one of those guys who carried a bag. Certainly by high school I stopped caring about what it looked like. And in college, knapsacks actually became common place and en vogue. So that was an added bonus.
These days, I still bag it, carrying a canvas brief case of sorts to work with all my wires and supplies and stuff. (The "hard" brief case is too pretentious for someone who makes the modest salary I do, so canvas does me fine.) And I carry the laptop in its own case, so it looks like I'm carrying two bags. I am thinking of getting a bigger bag so it all fits in one.
Cherish the bag. I'm going to start doing so.
posted by Steve @ 1:56 PM
5 Comments:
That is one of the reasons being a women comes in handy sometimes. We are expected to carry a bag on us at all times, so even if all it does is allow you to consolidated the small stuff into one place, it helps. I have to wonder why men have never come up with a purse concept. Maybe someday it will move from the realms of "out of bounds" to an accepted practice. Your lives would be much easier in the stuff hauling department.
Question though: what about backpacks? You mentioned other types of bags, but not those. Were they also considered uncool? When I was in school, everyone carried one, and the cool or not cool came from what brand you used and what color it was.
[[[[[ That is one of the reasons being a women comes in handy sometimes. We are expected to carry a bag on us at all times, so even if all it does is allow you to consolidated the small stuff into one place, it helps. ]]]]]]
Funny, though, because women also complain about that sometimes. I've heard them gripe about how annoying it is to have to hold onto their purses/pocketbooks. Sometimes if they can leave it behind—perhaps at a party or something where they don't want to have to worry about it—they will.
So, it probably works both ways, depending on the circumstances.
[[[[ I have to wonder why men have never come up with a purse concept. Maybe someday it will move from the realms of "out of bounds" to an accepted practice. ]]]]]]
Well, there are "man bags," which are kind of a newish concept, I think. But it definitely would make youy subject to ridicule. I guess if you've got something of a "metrosexual" approach, you might be able to pull it off.
I mean, for me, I'm really not interested in having something that is basically a man's purse. I do fine with my pockets for my keys & wallet & phone on normal circumstances. But, you know, when you need one, you need one. When you add your MP3 player to the equation, you start getting into trouble. I know that I specifically upgraded my phone a few years ago to something syncable with Macintosh because I wanted to ditch my PDA and carry one less thing.
As far as the keys & wallet thing go, the biggest problem I used to have was in the summer time, because shorts often didn't have pockets in them—certainly in the 80s that was true, if not beyond. So you'd have to carry your keys and wallet, or you had to stick them in your sock, which never quite worked out. Or you could get a "fanny pack," which became common place—if not universally appreciated—in the late 1980s. Remember those things? They'd strap around your waist. We called that little pouch by a very unPC 2-word name: the second word was "bag" and the first word rhymed with it. It was never intended to be a jab at homosexuality, but it was derived from the "less than masculine" quality they seemed to exude.
I was never particularly comfortable using those bags, but I did on and off as needed. I mean, if you're going hiking through the woods all day or to Great Adventure or something and your shorts have no pockets or flimpsy ones that flop around, that silly looking thing really was your best course of action. Or, for instance, when I was working over the summer delivering beverages and collecting money, there was no way I was going about my day with hundreds and hundreds of dollars of company cash in my sock or loose pockets. Too much risk. So the "___ bag" may have been stylishly horrendous, but from a practical standpoint, it was phenomenal.
[[[[[ Question though: what about backpacks? You mentioned other types of bags, but not those. Were they also considered uncool? When I was in school, everyone carried one, and the cool or not cool came from what brand you used and what color it was. ]]]]
No, those were very dreadfully uncool when I was in junior high. Again, in college, they became commonplace to the point that I would wager it was close to a 100% thing. I can't recall a single person—literally—who didn't have one. There may have been some, but I can't come up with one. Now, I don't know if that is because it was becoming "fashionable" or because it was simply "collegiate." I tend to think the latter, because it happened overnight.
That is very true about purses. I am a big purse kind of person, since I like to have all my stuff on my at any given time. I carry my wallet, keys, MP3 player, cell phone, gum, lip gloss, etc., not to mention any necessary paper work, such as directions to where I am going or a list of things to buy. But every now and then, if the opportunity presents itself, I will leave it in the car. Not because I don't like my purse, but because in a bar or other crowded situation, they are hard to keep up with and easy to steal. If you notice, most women don't have the purse on them at all times. When they get to the friend's house or wherever, they find a handy chair and there it sits until it is time to leave. At a party or bar, you can't do that.
We always called those, um "bags" fanny packs growing up. My mom uses one instead of a purse when she is vacationing since it leaves her hands free. But you are right, I see very few men wearing them. Usually, from what I have seen, they hand their stuff to the woman they are with to put in their purse. My father does it to my mother all the time, and even to me if we are out together and he wants to bring something along.
I just can't imagine a life without a bag. In school it was my backpack, and now it is my purse. I don't even remember bag/no-bag being an issue when I was in school, so maybe I just lucked out. Considering I routinely hauled around 20+ pounds of books and supplies (I hated it when all my teachers assigned homework the same night!) I just can't see how you could do it without a bag of some sort. That had to have sucked. Big time.
Love thy pack! And, love thy pockets! I have no idea what I would do with out them. If it's not in my back pack, it's in my pockets.
I middle school we had eight classes a day, and I hated my locker being in the oldbuilding when all my classes were in the new building. So I used to carry all my notebooks in my backpack. We didn't have textbooks as there was only a classroom set the first year or so I was there.
In high school, our locker situation was less then ideal. You had to share unless you were a senior, or like I was every yearin a senior AEP or class during distribution. Most of the lockers tho where in a room by the Commons and very incovient. SO once agin the backpack triumphed! And we had block scheduling.
I am so rough on packs that I used to go through two or three a year. Until last year when I went and got a really nice one that I haven't managed to rip the straps out of.
Purse?I don't think I've ever owned a purse. I'm such a tomboy. I've always had a pack and I got attached to cargo pants/ BDU trousers in high school as a way to hide my cdplayer and headphones in school/class, and found they were usefull for so much more. I lived in them at work able to carry tools, dockets, poogy bait, and such int he cargo pockets.
And when faced in a situation where I can't have a pack or functional pockets. I am almost completely lost. I had to do a formal like gig thing not to long ago and my mum was laughing at me over my predicament.
As for the 'fanny packs' we called them beltbags and mum handed them out when we were sent to the zoo or Worlds of Fun(amusement park) so that it was harder (not impossible) for us to become separated from our belongings.
And wow, this turned out be to a long posts. Eeek. Must finish pesky assignment due in 3 hours.
Dude... get yourself a good laptop bag... the one I have holds EVERYTHING... 17" laptop, iPod, Palm, Phone, pens, Excedrin, wires, checkbook, my bills for the month, headphones, magazines. misc. tools, business cards, Zip drive, discs, Mouse, etc...
OK, so it weighs around 50 lbs., but you can't say I don't come prepared.
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