Need-a-Bag? Project Update March

Note: Need-a-Bag? is a project to promote sustainable bagging at the Hwy 441 Alachua County Farmer's Market each Saturday morning. We supply resusable tote bags reclaimed from thrift stores and garage sales. The Need-a-Bag? Project also utilizes old tank tops as tote bags by sewing up the bottoms (these are called t-totes). We invite you to read the other posts on the project by clicking the "Need-a-Bag? Project" label at the bottom of this post.

Oh my gosh, I am so full of Pad Thai right now. Got home from Need-a-Bag and other Saturday morning adventures, and got to work making some Pad Thai (I don't know if I should keep capitalizing "Pad Thai" or not -- it just somehow seems right) for lunch. DJ even said he wanted to try some, but it's lying cold by his side as he works diligently on a pyrite digging kit -- you know, one of those kits where you get a chisel and a hammer and break open a block of plaster.

Anyway, enough about Pad Thai and over-priced educational kits that I could probably make my own self. Today was the day DG and I realized that we have not done any serious re-stocking of totebags for some time. And it showed. We still have the t-tote that says "Virgo" on it in rhinestones -- how could someone not want an old, pink tank top with the bottom sewn up that says "Virgo" on it in rhinestones? I'm scratching my head over that one.

Erika is our stalwart compatriot in the Need-a-Bag? revolution, and has been wonderful about packing everything up at the close of the market day. Thank you, oh Erika-of-the-sweet-and-tasty-citrus. Plus, she even referred a cool local lady to the blog, who has a blog of her own called What We Need Is Here, and you can see it here.

So we set up, did our shopping, and then headed to
The Alachua County Humane Society Thrift Shop's semi-annual yard sale. You can buy a plastic bag for $1 or a box for $3 and fill it up with all the stuff they're trying to get out of their inventory. DG and I each bought a box and totally loaded up on tote bags. It was weird -- we're usually the only ones looking for cheap tote bags, but at this thing there was a bit of competition from at least two other people. What's the deal? Parallel programs? It boggles the mind to think what anyone else could possibly want with old, pet-hair covered tote bags. Maybe they saw us scrounging for tote bags and there was suddenly a zeitgeist for the things, I dunno.

Anyway, we are flush with tote bags, now, just in time for the March festival at the Farmer's Market. As you can see, I've got the first load hung up to dry in the back yard, and the second load is drying on the wooden rack on the back porch. I'm going to have to do these in stages; I've got at least another two loads of totes.

One of the interesting things about getting old tote bags is some of the things that are printed on them, such as the above bag with "MetroGel-Vaginal" printed on it. Why would anyone want to carry a tote bag with that printed on it? More to the point, why would anyone name a vaginal gel "MetroGel?" The implications are terrifying and perhaps a little titillating.