By Trina Machacek

When the cave man and the little cave woman went on a trip they didn’t pack one single thing. They had all they needed on their person. One loin cloth each that they were wearing, and a club. That was it. As time went by the need for maybe a comb came along so the little woman tucked a comb into her long tangle of hair and away they went. Oh yes, all cave ladies had long hair. How else would the cave man drag her from her family cave to his!? But. Yes, a hair covered “but.” Now we can’t seem to leave on a trip, even for overnight, without some of nearly everything we own. And that suitcase had better be on wheels or I am not going.

Trina Machacek

I just got back from a short couple of days and this subject entered my brain as I was unpacking when I got back home. Oh there were dirty clothes but for the most part I put away things I never even used. When I packed, besides one extra pair of undies and socks, I thought I would need an extra tube of toothpaste and two hairbrushes, some microwave popcorn, a dryer sheet—in case I had static cling, three pens and two note pads, and the list goes on.  Laughing at my absurdness I left most of the things I didn’t use in the suitcase and put it in the closet. I did take out the popcorn; I wouldn’t want it to go bad in my suitcase waiting for the next trip. Who knows what I will add to those things next time I pack.

We as a society, I have noticed, are very attached to the comfort of our homes. So much so that even though we want to go on a wonderful vacation to “get away” from it all. We still want to take “it all” with us. Like me taking popcorn. My stars I was staying in a hotel, in a city, with more stores than you can shake a stick at. But just because I knew there was a microwave in the rooms, I thought I should take something to eat. It wasn’t like I was going to starve! There were even no less than 5 different places to eat in this hotel. And an ice cream shoppe too. Be still my heart.

Then there is the clothing aspect of traveling. Coming from the high mountain desert where we can go from winter at 6a.m. to spring at 9:15, over to summer around 2p.m. and a studdle mixture of all the seasons around dusk. We think that the weather is like that everywhere. So packing has to cover all seasons too. I put in a sweatshirt, t-shirts, long and short sleeve button up shirts. Pants and shorts. Warm and cool socks. Took three different types of coats and jackets. This was when I was off to Las Vegas. Where the only reason I needed a sweater was because the air conditioning in the restaurant was on.

I suppose we should consider just one roller equipped suitcase is enough. In the 1920’s people had these HUGE trunks full of their everything. They must have weighed about forty pounds empty. Full they were nigh up to over a hundred and fifty pounds. Unless you were Mary Poppins. She carried everything she needed in her magical little bottomless carpet bag. That’s what I need. A bottomless carpet bag. Oh the possibilities.

Trina lives in Diamond Valley, north of Eureka, Nevada. She loves to hear from readers. Email her at itybytrina@yahoo.com