You Can Pry That Plastic Bag From My Cold, Dead Etc.

Bellingham is one of the latest cities to ban plastic bags for businesses to wrap our purchases in. A lot of people find this highly annoying. One sign in nearby Ferndale says, “Buy local. We still have plastic bags.”

The ban is relevant because I was shopping today with some friends at a store in Bellingham’s Fairhaven district. When we went to check out, the lady behind the counter was having a devil of a time packaging some of my purchases. She said the best way to do it would be to use plastic bags.

“But they won’t let us use our plastic bags anymore,” she lamented.

“So break the law,” I said.

This gave the lady a moment’s pause, so I assured her, “Nobody here is going to turn you in for it.”

She got a wonderfully defiant look in her eyes and I walked out of the store clutching not one but two contraband plastic bags.

En route to the car, we ran into a Greenpeace volunteer trying to sign up new members. He tried to rope me into a conversation, so I told him, “Sorry, but I’m not really the Greenpeace type.”

“Well have a nice day,” he said.

“Oh I will,” I replied, hefting my plastic bags in the air.