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Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Nature’s Bounty; or What’s with the Discarded Hair Ties Everywhere?!

The streets are full of promise for those clever enough to watch for it.

Take, for example, hair ties.  Why, if a gal plays her cards right, she may never buy an elastic hair tie again.  And as someone who regularly pulls her hair into a my-hair-turns-to-baling-twine-in-this-humidity yoga braid – much like your common, everyday braid but with more sweat – I gotta say, let the savings begin!

I mean, look around.  Bus stops, intersections, sidewalks.

Who are these people?  Clearly they’re on their way somewhere.  Is that them, over there, the ones with the flowing locks?  Is it those folks over there, the ones with their hair in their faces?

Why do these people hate hair ties?

Or perhaps, the hair ties are migrating.  

Maybe they’re tired of that mop you call a head of hair and have just quit, maybe thinking of going into a bit of light cinching. 

Perhaps, after a life of living in the cough-drop, Kleenex, hand sanitizer confines of a purse they’ve finally absconded of their own accord.

Most of the time, I am alone when the ground ties make themselves known to me.  And I always feel that the experience would be so much more enhanced – if you can believe that! – if there were someone with me.

“Look at that,” I’d say.  “Another free hair tie!”

And then that person would shake their head sadly.  “Oh, Pearl,” they’d say.


And then I’d just tap the side of my nose and wink.  Because I’m the one with the free hair ties.

19 comments:

jenny_o said...

And if you ever run out of real hair ties, consider how many elastic bands are also on the ground. That's what we used when I was a young 'un. We may have suffered more split ends, but we were always ready for an office emergency.

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari OM
...after due cleaning and sanitising by the Pearl and Mary team, I trust!!! YAM xx

Pearl said...

Not really picking them up, but I could!

Elephant's Child said...

I need to be more observant. I haven't noticed them here. Perhaps because I am caught up in marvelling at the number of single shoes I see beside the road. And the dearth of people hopping. Or reports of abductions...

Joanne Noragon said...

Pearl nose where to find the good ones.

sage said...

God saved me from the problem of needing to pick up hair ties, except for picking them up and shooting them like a rubber band at the woman in front of me in the bus. :)

River said...

They're probably dropped from someone's pocket as they pull out their bus pass, but your version of how they got there is more interesting.
I don't see many around here.
I know I tie back my hair before I leave home and don't let it loose until I get back home, maybe others do the same.

Starting Over, Accepting Changes - Maybe said...

I find them all over my house from my granddaughters and my husband. After retirement and living a buttoned-up life, he went Willy Nelson on me. I do like it.

Linda O'Connell said...

I see them all over parking lots. Makes me wonder. Much like the one shoe in the road sort of thing.

Leenie said...

Anywhere female humans gather there are discarded hair ties. I think they (the hair ties) lead different lives than the escaping socks and gloves, though.

Silliyak said...

Have you noticed if they have been migrating north?

Chickens Consigliere said...

No Pearl, don't pick it up. IT'S A TRAP! (That s your hair talking).

Diane Stringam Tolley said...

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Geo. said...

Hair ties fall from heads of unfortunates whose hair spontaneously evaporates. People who don't read the warnings and instructions on their shampoos suffer these episodes all too often.

Sioux Roslawski said...

Pearl--DO pick them up! After they've been on the ground for a while, all the bugs and germs that formed a rolling wave on the former owner's hair are dead, right? ;)

Free is always good.

Jono said...

I really appreciate your thriftiness. Make sure there is nothing tiny crawling around on it though.

Should Fish More said...

Haven't responded in awhile....wait, you haven't posted in awhile...nevermind.
I used to find the damn things everywhere, before Cary died and the girls grew up and moved on to dryers and floors of their own. I did once use a couple of them to hold wooden pieces together while waiting for glue to take.
Mike

Janice said...

About once a month I'd check your blog and see the pencil one and sigh a huge sigh and ask myself how long could I go on without pearls of wisdom from a pearl of Minnesota. And today, my friend asked me to read to her and I looked up your blog and I read. I've missed you.

VEG said...

I go from having about 40 damn hair ties to none and I can never figure out where they go. Is there some sort of secret, underground bunker beneath my house where some evil entity has compiled a giant nest out of hair ties? When I had cats I always knew where the ties were - under the bed in a corner with the rest of their stolen booty. Now? No idea. It's irritating! And baffling.

Now it's clear. YOU HAVE THEM!