Luggage We Have Loved

Travel Blog  •  Julia Ross  •  10.12.07 | 1:48 PM ET

luggagePhoto by Michael Yessis

I recently parted ways with a beloved North Face backpack, one that had seen me through seven years of delayed flights, typhoon rains and a would-be pickpocket in Shanghai. Its zippers had broken down irretrievably, the plastic lining was crumbling, and the water bottle pockets had stretched way beyond their usefulness. When I finally surrendered the pack to a recycling truck in Taiwan, I felt a small stab of grief and wondered how I could ever replace it.

While the era of pasting “Hotel Monaco” stickers on leather cases is long past, luggage still says a lot about who we are and where we’ve been, writes columnist Rob Lovitt on MSNBC.com. And when the time comes, it can be hard to part with a bagful of memories. “In college, I traveled with a beat-up suitcase—bought at a tag sale for a buck—that fit right in with my thrift-shop wardrobe,” Lovitt writes. “With its worn leather handle and faded houndstooth pattern, it was already so tired-looking I called it my ‘Death of a Salesman’ suitcase. Alas, just like Willy Loman, it went out with a whimper as old age and hard travel took their inevitable toll.”

Predictably, Lovitt’s luggage profile morphs into “family mule” after he has kids. Years later, he embraces a carry-on only policy, only to be foiled by his wife who insists on lugging a bulky suitcase dubbed “Big Red.”

My new backpack gets a trial run later this month. I’ll give it time to prove its mettle, but it’s got a tough act to follow.

 

Tags: Travel Fashion, Life of a Travel Writer

Julia Ross is a Washington, DC-based writer and frequent contributor to World Hum. She has lived in China and Taiwan, where she was a Fulbright scholar and Mandarin student. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Time, Christian Science Monitor, Plenty and other publications. Her essay, Six Degrees of Vietnam, was shortlisted for "The Best American Travel Writing 2009."


3 Comments for Luggage We Have Loved

Beccalynn 10.22.07 | 2:16 AM ET

I got very beautiful and convenient traveling bags from CouponAlbum site (http://www.couponalbum.com).

Josh 06.21.08 | 1:09 PM ET

I lost my luggage on a plane once,  I swore it would never happen again!

baGGirl 10.28.08 | 9:58 PM ET

Alas, I find it difficult to pick my own luggage from dozens of, or even hundreds of luggages. It is indeed a very horriblr thing which will torture me a lot. However, if I have a distinctive luggage, it would be much easier.

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