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Grocery stores can be really interesting places when you're not in a hurry. I tend to shop every day or so as I eat a lot of vegetables and like them as fresh as possible, especially field greens. In the produce section I overheard two twenty-something-or-other young men talking and the comment that stuck out was: "What, that old bag?"

My eyes widened and I laughed when I realized they hadn't been discussing my age, but something quite different. They turned and saw me with tears streaming down my cheeks and gave me timid smiles. The smaller of the two boys scratched his head, hanging from his arm was the bag in question. Poor thing was once white I'm sure and it had been patched together with all kinds of colored threads, pieces of material and stickers. It really was an, old bag'.

We talked for ten minutes or so about how times have changed. When I was growing up the stores handed out paper bags. Now, plastic bags are everywhere, clogging up drain pipes, hanging in trees and whipping around parking lots. They're an eye sore.

In Canada, our Provinces are really trying hard to tackle this problem. Some stores have bins where you can return the bags and they're recycled. Others charge five cents per bag. In some places there's even a tax added to your bill. However this young man told me that one of our major grocers has manufactured large, canvas shopping bags with handles. Black and sturdy. I thought this was a great idea and I bought several.

I thanked them for the info and smiled. The fellow with the, old bag' asked me why I'd laughed so hard. So I told him that I once owned a bag just like his and I used it to store peanut butter sandwiches until they rotted. (I didn't like those sandwiches for lunch at school.) His eyes widened like mine had and he laughed too! "You're not old enough to be my mother." I'll tell you that comment about age twisted in my brain and believe me, feeling puzzled and flattered at the same time isn't pretty. Apparently his mother had disappeared twenty years ago and all the police found in a wooded area near the textile plant, was her bag.

I was quite moved and really didn't know what to say other than I was so sorry. He sensed my discomfort and said, "Hey. It's okay. You never know what you're gonna learn in a grocery store!" Or by how some small twist of fate words can change your life and the way you look at, old bags'.

Learn more about this author, April Baily.
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