Some collect banknotes, women, or
movables. Others specialize in postcards, badges or artwork or butterflies. Few
are those who collect hygiene bags, called in our specialized slang “vomiters”.
Yes, indeed, you may think being disgusting is a special trademark, but we can
take pride in keeping hygiene bags in good clean condition and only a handful
may pretend to be the protectors and keepers of these indispensable items from
the interior of modern airliners. We consider that these bags devoid of their
unpleasant content are sometimes even expressing the artistic inclinations or
the lack of it of the airlines´ heads.
However,
the fans of this hobby are few and thus, real connoisseurs of these lovely
recipients who are at once the pioneers of a new stream of science – bagology,
are not many either.
Often,
it is easy to appreciate the overall level of an airline by the level of the
hygiene bags. Some airlines are trying to divert the attention of the
passengers from their weak services and put diverse frames on the bags to keep
canasta scores or play other games.
This
lengthy introduction indicates that this area of collecting was considered at
first as a practical joke, but soon it has developed to be a true collecting
branch for dedicated followers. It is known that even the National Air and
Space Museum in Washington, D.C. has its own department where materials used
onboard of aircraft are stored and 25 collectors in the US and Europe are today
devoting their time and effort to this area.
This
type of collecting is not at all easy. Nobody would keep “these things” and it
is quite difficult to find older ones. Customer Relations Departments of
airlines do not keep these items on stock and collections are most often
enriched through exchanges or swaps from different parts of the world. In spite
of all the hardships, Czech collectors have in their collections a few true
gems. We could name the hygiene bag of the Èeská Letecká Speleènost of 1938, a
plastic hygiene bag of the American carrier National the size of which reminds
us of a true shopping bag. Another special bag is the Mongolian MIAT hygiene
bag folded on request from a sheet of paper by the flight attendant without
using glue. TWA, American Airlines, Qantas, Air New Zealand and others use
their hygiene bags as advertising for Kodak products. You put inside a film a
send it for processing (you get a rebate on the processing). Other airlines
would remind you that you might use it to bring food remnants for your pet. On
some hygiene bags you may find the following text:” Sometimes even the nicest
boys and girls feel phooey”.
Jaromír Král