Saying goodbye.... to a backpack?

One tenant in many religions involves detaching oneself from material possessions. Apparently, this Evil twin does not follow all religious tenants. I love my possessions. Not all of them, but a lot of them. For instance, I loved our 1974 Volvo and cried when my Dad decided to give it throw it away. I love my purse that I just bought for my birthday. It is yellow, leather, not too femme, and makes me happy when I carry it around. Some possessions, I did not even realize I have affection for until I had to give it away.

My backpack is sage green with a leather bottom and has only a front compartment and main compartment. (The backpacks of today are way too pocketed.) It is the perfect size to carry books and a lunch. It has a handle on the top which holds my flashing light for when I ride my bicycle in the dark.

I don't know when the backpack was purchased. I imagine that my sister bought it at Mccaulou's on our back to school shopping spree. There are pictures of her in junior high sporting this canvas beauty, and since that was the only store we ever shopped in for school supplies it is a pretty safe bet. Being the younger sister, I often got hand-me-downs. Getting out of fashion blue corduroy knickers, made me a little bitter and jealous of my sister's things. (Its obvious by now I learned nothing at CCD). So when I got my sister's backpack, I cannot say I was thrilled. I tried losing it a few times, but it had miraculous boomerang technology. After a while I gave in because it was functional.

Over the years, it has needed some repair. Jansport used to have a lifetime warranty. You could send your bag into the company and they would fix the zipper, the fraying inside and the holes. The bag would return with a letter from you bag saying how much fun it had at backpack camp. Slightly odd, but it was very cute.

For the past few weeks, I have noticed that the zipper was not functioning. It splits apart in the middle of the zipper. It was time to send the bag back to "camp." However, I was horrified to find out that Jansport had changed its warranty to the normal life span of a bag. But what is the average life span of a backpack? Mine is over twenty years old. Do you think that is pushing it?

I am going to send it anyway. We will see what Jansport says. I hope it can be repaired, because I love my backpack. It has come to represent my very long academic career. It’s very "old school" and vintage. Okay that is an exaggeration there is nothing stylish about it, but maybe that is why I love it so.