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- Counterpoints<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
25 September, 2017<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/standpointmag.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/files_u28_Valise_Lite-Locked_de_Samsonite.jpg\" "\\"Feature")
<\/p>\nIdeally, a person should occupy the space of a person. This rules out the trailing of a small block of suitcase, at the end of a metal bar handle. <\/p>\n
Occurring about a metre after its owner, who walks, smugly separate from what is an appendage, it passes unseen until it is too late, an unwelcome brick of a thing. It doesn\u2019t require a holiday season. Or even an airport. Victoria Station, on a recent morning, was a mass of these hidden hurdles. They are the hard stuff of Tube carriages and walkways, there on pavements and in shops. <\/p>\n
Collision with one of them is so much worse than the rucksack nudge because they\u2019re there by stealth. This is not the backpacker made clumsy by the bursting supplies of six months\u2019 travel in all seasons, contained within its worn canvas. Cumbersome as they are, with these what you see is what you get, and what you get will be by accident. <\/p>\n
At the risk of outdoing my own inner curmudgeon, it is equally the unyielding pristine nature of the wheeler-dealers that irritates. I look fondly upon my loose, pocketed roll of a travel bag and know it\u2019s not for all. But it tells a story: its baggy side compartments, a faded underside from only partial exposure to sunlight and the grubbiness of carousels. <\/p>\n
If this were about being old or enfeebled, the mini-trunks would pose the same hazards but their edges would be softened by the knowledge that necessity is at work. But it is not. This is a choice, by a growing majority, of all ages and strengths.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo problem, I\u2019ve got wheels,\u201d they say. They have. And that\u2019s only the half of it. Uneven, disproportionately loud, their rollers harrumph along the pavement. And their diminutive size bears no relation to their capacity to annoy. We\u2019re all about ease and economy. But this is one without the other. A hidden handle, reads some related literature, \u201cpops up into towing position\u201d. More stealth.<\/p>\n
\u201cTravelling made easy,\u201d proclaims an online description. But where it\u2019s almost weightless to lift, it\u2019s heavy to encounter. Its dimensions are carefully crafted to fit those of the overhead locker; less care is given to its fit into the communal space that is a platform or a pavement.<\/p>\n
\u201cRolling suitcases\u201d came into being in the 1970s, an invention by one Bernard D. Sadow. Walking through customs at an airport in Puerto Rico with his family, and struggling with two large, tightly-packed suitcases, he spotted a man moving a piece of machinery on a wheeled platform. \u201cHe was just pushing it along without much effort. We need wheels on luggage,\u201d he stated. <\/p>\n
I beg to differ.<\/p>\n
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Contributors: February 2020<\/a>
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\nLetters: Priceless plans; Marxist pedagogy; Tibet and China; The name game<\/a>
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\n![\"\"](\"\/standpoint\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/St_Pauls_whispering_gallery.jpg\"\/)
A mental balm<\/a><\/p>\nWhat to read next<\/h6>\n
<\/h3>\n
\nContributors: February 2020<\/a>
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\nLetters: Priceless plans; Marxist pedagogy; Tibet and China; The name game<\/a>
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