Senior Spectrum
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June 2008
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The Backpack - What a Marvelous Invention!
Remember the frame backpack for serious hikers up mountains and through wilderness areas? Then, later, a light weight one for skiers? And, now, one for every young person; kindergarten through grad school.
My backpack dates back 50 years when it was part of a package deal at a ski shop near Lake Arrowhead. A red one which went with my new ski outfit.
That backpack has been my companion for over 50 years. (Not many of my relationships have lasted that long.) We've been together all these years - up Mt. Rose, Lassen, the Ruby Mountains; canoeing down the Green River, rafting trips on the Klamath, Clackamas, a llama trip, hiking the Rogue River trail. Then, to the Coswolds for ten days, Sweden for two months, Amsterdam - most of the time hiking, sometimes on a bicycle.
I believe the evolution and acceptance of the backpack is a cultural and style phenomenon. Now, they're available in pink, lavender and every other color imaginable at almost every market, drug store and discount store. It's as much a part of any young person's outfit as the cell phone.
Older persons don't always have a backpack, nor a cell phone. Slow adapters we are. I don't carry a cell phone but my 50-year-old backpack is still with me helping me balance some groceries on my shoulders as I carry them, a cane in one hand, the other hand free to open the door in case no one else is there to do it for some one who's 80 plus.