Tuesday, October 30, 2007

More on Trash Bags

I have to add a post to this subject...Gretchen and I had a good laugh together remembering trash bags put to good use. One of my most vivid memories was in fifth grade, my class had an overnight field trip to the Pilgrim ship in Dana Point. We were told to bring rain gear for the night watches. So there I was, in a trashbag with a neck hole and sleeve holes cut in the sides. The hood was a cut off corner of a second trashbag (think pointy hood) that had been masking taped to the hole in the neck. We were not going to waste good money on a rain coat that I probably wouldn't even use. And, honestly, I'm not too sure that I wouldn't do the same now to my child.

That story reminds me of the many rainy days we experienced in elementary school in which I took plastic baggies and put them over my socks, and then put another pair of socks over those. No one knew that I had my rainboots on under my socks.

And then there was the required emergency packet each child had to produce at school. One of the items on the list was an astronaut blanket made of shiny silver mylar. My emergency packet had a special blanket made of shiny black plastic.

Trash bags. Cheap, available, forgiving, and waterproof. They kept us humble. That is a lot to say about a folded piece of plastic. They served us well, while maintaining the budget, and like mom said, "You can make almost anything out of a trashbag!"

Friday, October 26, 2007

Trash Bag Travesties

I bought Anders a Halloween costume today. This is a big deal for me because growing up it was drilled into us that "you can make ANYTHING from a trash bag".... and we did. I remember one memorable and embarrassing Thanksgiving party that our home school group was putting on. We (my mom and sisters and I) needed to dress up like Indians (native Americans). Of course at the last minute my mom cut some holes in some trash bags and threw them over our heads to try and pass as a..... deer hide, beaded, squaw outfit? Anyways there is a picture somewhere of me sitting at a long Thanksgiving table with a messy mullet, an 80's collared shirt with a trash bag sitting haphazardly over my outfit. I remember being pretty sure that it didn't quite pass as an Indian dress and feeling a bit silly.

At some point we did get a big suitcase with various costumes that were handed down, hand made or found at thrift stores. That solved some Halloween dilemmas and we had a blast with those fun creations.
I never will forget those trash bag travesties so this Halloween I went to Wal-Mart and spent 10$ on a very cute and respectable pumpkin costume for Anders. One thing is for sure, we'll get some good pictures and there will be no possibility of suffocation.