RIP: Old Green Friend

In addition to voting this week and getting ready for a lengthy trip, I had to retire my silent companion ~ the 21” travel-mate suitcase that has been by my side since Day 1.

The immediate cause of death was a faulty spring that pushes and pulls the sliding handle. This is the travel equivalent of a heart attack because without the handle in the “out” position, you are carrying that sucker across the terminal floor like a chubby child that should be walking.

My wife says I bought the case 15 years ago (how does she remember such trivia?). I would guess a dozen but certainly “Old Green” has been faithfully by my side these past five years in my current job. Vague I’m not on this – at least 150 school visits, conferences, meetings and nearly 1,000,000 travel miles. That’s respect if you ask me.

Old Green has been as far east as Kazakhstan (twice no less), south to Santiago, Chile and quietly-without-a-fuss-thank-you back and forth to Europe like a cat casually crossing the street. There is a coffee stain from some long forgotten café and another one from a Bloody Mary that I spilt at London Gatwick. The reddish scar on the front of the bag is the indelible security sticker from Warsaw airport.

Old Green has been variously a footrest (A-), an impromptu writing desk (C+) and pillow (D-). Someone mistakenly took the bag from the airport in Toronto but quickly returned it after seeing the shabby condition.

Old Green suffered the trauma last spring of a crazed sniffer dog attack at Bogota’s El Dorado airport. [At the time I selflessly thought better the bag than me]. So ferocious was this assault that the wheels were removed and the handle casing poked repeatedly by a long, thin screwdriver. Alas, no drugs, only dirty clothing. That was the beginning of the end, I think.

In checking the pockets one last time, I found two oversized paperclips, one Dutch guilder and an unused Turkish Airways baggage tag. Memories in funny places.