Travel

Test

before buyi

THERE OUGHT to be a law that anyone selling luggage
should be required to test every piece under rugged condi-
tions before they are allowed to sell it.

Furthermore, every luggage
store or department should be re-
quired to have on hand 40 pounds
of weights so that the customer can
add them to the bag and struggle
up two flights of stairs!

travel
wise

by Barbara
McCreadie
SEE

Are you still living with the mat-
ched set your Mom and Dad
bought you for graduation? Do

you plan your packing around a
two-suiter, an overnight bag anda
cosmetic case? I think it’s time you
went shopping!

In the good old days, travel con-
sisted of arriving at a train station
or a dock where a fleet of ‘tred
caps’’ would be waiting to haul
your multitude of bags to your seat
or cabin,

When you arrived at your desti-
nation, a similar horde would
await to settle you into a taxi,

Naturally, the taxi driver would
wrestle the Jot into your hotel

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where even more flunkies would
fight for the honor of shifting the
load.

Today, if you can't carry
everything you've got with you up
the Empire State Building, unaided
and in one trip, you're out of luck.

The airlines hire gorillas who do
Stress-testing of bags. They jump
on them from a height, play kick-
ball with them and paint them with
grease. They also lose them.

Gremlins lie in wait to yank off
wheels, straps and handles.

So, for a few minutes, let’s go
on a shopping trip for a new suit-
case. Please note: I said that in the
singular. Anyone travelling with
more than one bag needs their
head examined!

Wheels are essential.

However, not every set of wheels
does the owner any good. For a
while, manufacturers were into
detachable wheels. The problem
was that they often refused to
detach when you wanted to ship
the case onto an airline. They
often detached when you were in
the middle of an intersection, roll-
ing merrily under the nearest
truck,

Fixed wheels, then, do a better
job.

Suitcases corie in all sizes and
Shapes. Just remember the laws of
gravity — tall, thin bags topple
over cusier than short, squatty
bags. When fully packed, a
broad-based bag will pull far easier
than a tall one.

But, don’t take my word for it.
When you're shopping for a bag,
ask the salesperson to fill the bag
with anything you can find. Then
try it out.

Next, a bag should be sized to
your height.

The test for this is carrying the
bag up a flight of steps. Ever wat-
ched a child carry a suitcase
upstairs? Right. Ka-bump,  ka-
bump, etc. all the way to the top.

Shorter adults have the same
problem — but it’s no fun some-
where in Europe. Hotel staircases
can be murder,

The next rule is that anything at-
tached to a bag can be ripped off.
Disregard any bag with leather
tabs, fancy flaps or metal
doodads. Anything that can catch
in a conveyor belt wil/, and proba-
bly at the first chance it gets.

White luggage looks awfully
pretty in the store. It doesn’t look
pretty after one visit to an airport.

Of all the bags I’ve owned (I

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wear them out every couple of
years) the best is the current one.
it's a dark brown tweed and the
grease marks hardly show. So far,
not one airline has managed to rip
a hole in the fabric — a heavy,
polyester blend.

Smooth, plastic coatings have
the life expectancy of a mouse ina
six-cat house. All it takes is one
small nick and what doesn’t flake
off will be chewed by the
carousels. Heat and age aren’t
kind to plastic and it doesn’t do
well under stress. One of nature's
basic rules is that the most fragile
bag always gets stacked on the
bottom.

Do not buy the large, economy-

shopping ahead, and
save more in the 4

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If you miss any of these flyers,
W call the North Shore News
Distribution Department

FIRST IN FLYERS ON NORTH SHORE

ierchandise in store
Ing new luggage

sized bag unless you're 6'6"’ and
weigh over 250 pounds. I don't
care where you're going or for how
long. Nebody needs that many
clothes.

se ©

So, your new bag is packed.
Here are a few tips to help keep
you from taking separate vaca-
tions:

* Aside from the identification
tag on the outside of the case, tape
a card with the same information
inside the lid.

* Watch carefully

when the

airline tickets your bag. Make sure
that the alphabet code is the pro-
per one. LAX is Los Angeles, not
Las Vegas. If in doubt, ask.

“The following flyers wall be armang
thas coming week tn the North
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