Bag and Baggage

Forgot to share this story about my trip to Richmond.....

Space, of course, was going to be at a premium when Matthew and Kim and Benji and Benji's Grampa set out by car for Chicago, and Kim was hoping to get some more of Benji's clothes there relatively soon (so he didn't grow out of them before he got a chance to wear them). She was thinking about boxing some up and mailing them to her folks but I suggested that she just fill a suitcase with some things and that I take it back with me, since I only was planning to check one piece of baggage anyway.

Well, that's what she did. She filled a suitcase with some Benji clothes and some for Matt as well. Problem was, as I saw it, that although it was a nice suitcase, it was a very black, very innocuous suitcase. How would I be able to recognize it as it came down the chute. Hmmm... I had noticed, on the flight to Richmond, that one couple had tied blue ribbons to all their black bags to make them stand out and easy to spot. Now that's a good idea, I thought. The problem was, by this time we had packed all the ribbon and anything else I could think of to tie on the bag. So I grabbed a plastic grocery sack and tied it to the handle and also a little piece of green ribbon that was lying on the floor. There! No one else would certainly do that.

When my flight had landed and Marv and I went to claim our luggage I told him how I had marked the bag. We stationed ourselves at the tail-end of the baggage belt and waited. It didn't take too long and there it was - A big, black bag with a plastic grocery bag tied to the handle. We pulled it off the conveyor... it looked a little big... the sack looked a little small... where was the green ribbon? There was green tape on the handle but.... %$#$%@ we had the wrong bag! Quick, we put it back on the conveyor so no one would think we were stealing it and proceeded to wait for our bag to come along, hoping that the owner of the fake Kim's bag would notice that ours was marked with a grocery sack too.

I mean really! Who would ever think that anyone else would tie a grocery sack to their luggage!