Friday, January 08, 2010

The Story Of My HAL Bags

My cruise ships of choice are those of the Holland America Line. Mom took her first cruise on it and the next year I tagged along; since then, it’s been HAL or nothing. I like the understated elegance and mature attitude the company brings to cruising; it’s a nice way to travel. You come on board and everyone waits on you. Can’t be beat.

Before you arrive at the first port, there’s a bag (made out of duck, or some other fabric) on your bunk, to assist with your shopping. It’s of excellent quality and lasts for years. I know; the first one I received is just starting to wear out and that’s after some 22 cruises in 24 years. What to do with them? They multiply like rabbits in my apartment.

One is for laundry (…uh, necessities…) which I suspend from a couple of coat hangers in my closet. Another is for picking up the newspapers at night from the place where I am a columnist. Yet another commutes from my place to the radio studio with my program materials in it. And one holds donated eye glasses to be shipped out.

Naturally, there is one which stays clean and pressed for my trips to the mall. When I go out shopping, I want people to know I travel with the best.

So now I have my mother’s and my own. Once I a while I run into a few of the same stash which have been multiplying in a corner of my closet, forgotten but still clean and in pristine condition. I don’t think they’ve been to church yet, so there’s a least on place left to introduce them.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home