Grain Valley News
  • Home
  • About
    • Submit Your News
    • Contact
  • News
    • Voter Resources
    • Online Puzzles
  • Community
    • Events Calendar
    • Kindness Awards
    • 2023 Garage Sale Directory
    • Parade
  • Job Board
  • Best of Grain Valley
  • Support
    • Advertise
    • Become A Sustaining Member
  • Business Directory Submission Form
  • Home
  • About
    • Submit Your News
    • Contact
  • News
    • Voter Resources
    • Online Puzzles
  • Community
    • Events Calendar
    • Kindness Awards
    • 2023 Garage Sale Directory
    • Parade
  • Job Board
  • Best of Grain Valley
  • Support
    • Advertise
    • Become A Sustaining Member
  • Business Directory Submission Form








​news

Musings From The Middle: She's A Bag Lady

12/20/2018

 
Picture
​by Cathy Allie
​ One of my favorite old games shows was Let's Make a Deal, where crazily dressed contestants tried to maneuver in Monty Hall's (now Wayne Brady's) world. The prizes were the best, and my most favorite part was when Monty would ask the ladies in the audience if anyone had a certain item in their bag. 
    Sometimes it was a bottle of aspirin or something many ladies had.  But every once in a while, he went for the truly original, like a set of Yellow Pages, a hammer and nails, or a wedding garter. I watched with amazement as ladies would reach deep into their bags and pull out these surprises.  
   For a long time, my favorite movie was Mary Poppins, complete with her carpet bag that held the wonders of the world.  Perhaps these favorites were just foreshadowing for my life as a bag lady, maybe not the one you have seen on city streets with all her worldly possessions tucked into her handled storage; but instead one who has amassed quite a collection of bags through the years.
     Maybe it started when I was a teacher, as I shifted from the collegiate backpack to a hard-sided briefcase, which someone thought would provide me with both a professional look and a storage place for all the papers I would be grading.
     The briefcase handle encumbered one hand, making it tough to carry my coffee cup (and cups are a full column for another day), so I set it aside for something roomier with handles that slipped over my arm and up on to my shoulder. 
    Then began the parade of school bags, some canvas, some "pleather", some fashionable, some purely functional, some pretty, some downright homely. They held my after school walking tennis shoes, coaching or game clothes, lunches, and random paperclips, which seemed to multiply at the bottom.  
     When a new bag caught my eye, I shamelessly abandoned my old ones, randomly tucking them into closets and trunks, sometimes not even emptying them fully of their contents. Once when finally cleaning out a bag, I found an uncashed birthday check from my grandmother, who had since passed away. Pitiful! 
     Somewhere in the 80's, I am guessing about the same time actress Debra Winger appeared in Urban Cowboy, I latched onto a decidedly Western look myself, I had two beautiful leather hand-tooled bags that coupled with my sky high hair made it appear I was headed back on the oil company plane to meet J.R. for lunch at the Ewing Ranch (just FYI, I would have preferred Bobby).
     Then came the passionate purse pursuit of the 90's, when I was making enough money to treat myself to nice purses.  A bag to match this, a bag to match that. I must have had quite a night life back in the day, as I owned about 10 evening bags, with varying amounts of sequins and crystals, none of which I can truly remember ever using.
    Thankfully for a world now obsessed with sharing old photos, I was never a fanny pack girl.
     Fast forward to the baby years, and carrying a diaper bag I convinced myself was both stylish and useful.  I enjoyed having an excuse to have a small suitcase with me, and I packed it to the max with more than diapers and ointment, for sure.
     When my daughter was old enough to need a backpack of her own, I was forced to transition out of the house sized bag into something reasonable. I began to focus on color and season, purchasing a sky blue Easter bag, a purple Advent bag, and a tawny orange bag to welcome fall.
     I supported my beloved MU Tigers with a gold and black striped bag that stopped traffic more than once. A Chiefs bag still ranks as one of my top 10 best garage sale purchases ever.
     I suppose at some point I realized my borderline obsession with bags when one day after hauling in about three bags with me to work, a co-worker said casually, “Everything okay at home?” and it took me a minute to realize she thought I was moving in at work all my bags in tow. I wish I could say that stopped me.
 I shifted away from personal bags and shifted to household use bags.  A casserole carrier, an insulated cooler bag for lunches and picnics, a three compartment bag that could literally have held a small body but nestled just perfectly in my car trunk.
     In a nod to nobly protecting our environment, I bought reusable bags for my groceries, and bags made from recycled materials.  After a shoulder injury, I garnered cross body bags which I told myself had a slimming effect. When Oprah told us never to carry a bag bigger than our backside, I dutifully checked the sizes in the mirror before purchasing them.  
    After a frantic search one day for car keys that had slipped in between the lining and the outside of the bag, my new favorite bags became ones with lots of different compartments that help me keep my cell phone, keys, and sunglasses in easy reach.  I have curbed my bag collecting seriously over the last few years, and I am down to the few that I really love and use.  But it may be too late.
     I watched my daughter get off the bus this week, laden with bags.  Like a line from a Christmas carol, she had "one small bag for gym clothes, two bags for school books, and a trumpet in it's shiny case."
     Last week I saw what I know will probably be my last bag purchase to complete my collection.  It is a tiny, almost keyring like size, and it holds the quarter I need, not to call someone who cares, but to use to nab a cart at Aldi.  No one will even know I have it.
 

Comments are closed.

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Burton Kelso
    Business
    Cathy Allie
    Celebrations & Transitions
    Census
    City Of Grain Valley
    Columnists
    Community Profile
    Covid19
    Covid-19
    Economic-development
    Education
    Elections
    Financial-health
    Fitness
    Food Inspections
    Good News
    Good-news
    Grain-valley-assistance-council
    Grain Valley Fair
    Grain Valley Historical Society
    Grain-valley-partnership
    Grain Valley Schools
    Health And Fitness
    Health-and-fitness
    Home And Garden
    Jackson County
    Kindness Awards
    Ld
    Letters
    Local News
    Looking Back
    Lorne-meinershagen
    Missouri House Of Representatives
    Missouri Senate
    Musings From The Middle
    Neighborhood View
    On-the-job
    Pets
    Police Blotter
    Quick-news
    Rdn
    Recreation
    Sally-whitaker
    Seniors
    Senior-send-off
    Sports
    State Of Missouri
    Technology
    Tracey-shaffer
    Transportation
    University Of Missouri Extension
    Waynes-world

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018

Grain Valley News

Grain Valley News is a free community news source published weekly online. 
(c) 2023 Grain Valley News

Contact Us

PO Box 2972
​Grain Valley MO 64029

Privacy Policy
Picture