The once ubiquitous seat back stuffers seem to have been cast aside. What happened, and what do the avid barf bag collectors think about it?
In the humankind of barf - bag collecting , there are a few holy grails . One is a simple blueish and clean , and has no words . Its master imagery is ablue reindeerwith curly antlers . His mouth is slightly opened , a plenty of ice block whirl around out . From Finnaviation , which later merged with Finnair , it ’s everything you ’d desire in a vomitus bag : It ’s both whimsical ( a animated cartoon Rangifer tarandus ? Delightful ) and hardheaded ( it holds puke ) .
But though many search out this upchucking caribou with glee , retired University of Texas marketing professor Eli Cox — a “ baggist , ” as airsickness old bag aggregator are known — isn’t such a fan . “ No airline has ‘ vomitus bag ’ written on them , but there are others that are snug , ” he tell me . “ They ’re just not tasteful — no pun intended . ”
Barf handbag , spew poke , air sickness traveling bag , upchuck bag , regurgitation bag , the more conventional emesis bag , whatever the name , you definitely know one when you see one . Cox himself is fond to the more sedate term “ Nausivat”—as in a value-added tax for nausea — a term coined for him by a Latin professor friend . They ’re typically rectangular , about the size of a theme lunch bag , with a neat voluminous tie on top .
Design by Maitane Romagosa for Thrillist
Earlier this month , all the iterations of the names and more were paintedon the bulwark of an exhibitionin Soho , New York . Just down the street from the Prada entrepot , around the corner from Louis Vuitton , here , for one day only , barf bags were the star of the show . They were mount in shape , tacked up with taping , shore up in display cases , holding popcorn for Edgar Albert Guest . The ones not in the service of food belong to four prestigious “ baggists ” ( one of whom is Cox ) , each with their own rootage story of how they arrived at this heave - ed obsession .
At the showing , Cox donned bright lily-livered and held court . “ There are two room of front at the airsick bag , ” he explains . “ One is as a storage container that ’s go through many iterations . But more interesting to me is the social chronicle . ” He mention an Air Jamaica bagful in his collection , shell its presence in solid yellow , stress with promising red piece of writing . “ Put it this way : You could never envisage Norway having a udder like that one , ” he says . He notes that bags from Asia are typically more inoffensive and polite in their language , using phrase like “ comfort bags ” and “ disposal udder . ”
Other baggists in the exhibition lean into the inelegance . There ’s Steve Silberberg , aka “ Upheave Steve . ”
Every unused barf bag is a story of triumph.|Courtesy of Dramamine
His favorite is from China Airlines , with a picture of orchids growing out of the earth . It ’s a touchy , beautiful image , but what he ’s drawn to is the contemplation of the plan . The motion-picture show is upside - down . So when someone is using it for its intended role ( i.e. , barfing ) , they see the range of a function right-hand - side up . Now beauty offsets what demonic functions the body has cooked up .
Other baggists in the exhibition lean into the inelegance . There ’s Steve Silberberg , aka “ Upheave Steve . ” He claims 3,000 bags from almost every airway in the world . His license plate reads BARF BAG . And retired San Diego attorney Bob Grove , aka “ Barf Bag Bob , ” who initially begin his accumulation ironically , displaying the bags in his bathroom . Now his collection is 1,800 strong , his wall at home covered reverentially with bags in frames like the piece of work of art they are . But different sensibilities or not , Cox , Silberberg , and Grove at one level all had the same thought : “ Nobody pull together vomitus bag . You know what ? I probably should . ”
From food storage to storing barf
esurient collector have long gravitated toward aviation gear . It ’s a nonrational way to catalogue the travel in your living , as well as a way to fantasize about finish unknown . Enthusiasts collect pilot light wings , safety cards , boarding pass , salt - and - pepper shakers ( like these snatchable ones fromTurkish Airlines ) , napkins , KLM Dutch houses , and actual planes . But barf traveling bag are extra because they ’re notmeantto be collected . In fact , they were n’t originally even mean for vomit in the first place .
In the 1940s , Gilmore T. Schjeldahl ( Father of the Church of the lateNew Yorkerart critic Peter Schjeldahl ) was a charge card savant with no college education , but several patents to his name . For better or for bad , the one he ’ll most be remembered for is the vomit base . Initially constructed as a udder made of plastic to check intellectual nourishment that could be seal with an Fe , “ Shelly ” play around with facing paper traveling bag with the plastic .
Around that same clock time commercial flight had gain impulse . The first commercial-grade flight take off on New Year ’s Day 1914 — a seaplane hopping from St. Petersburg to Tampa , Florida . But as more flights took off in the following decades , problems surfaced . Before cabin were pressurized , planes stayed around 5,000 fundament ( for reference , skydivers today unremarkably jump at around 10,000 feet , and planing machine typically cruise around 35,000 ) . Being that susceptible to zephyr currents was jolting on the body . It was bumpy . Loud . Smelly with exhaust . Even those with the strong breadbasket were certain to miss their luncheon — and whatever else was still in their stomach — prior to the flight of stairs .
Before pressurized cabins, this could have led to a messy scenario.|Bettmann/Getty Images
There were jury-rigged solution . Early flights had a uniformed nurse on board . TheNew York Timesreported in 1928that all people demand to do was inhale a pre - flight “ anti - airsickness ” concoction of cinnamon and oxygen . For its part , the industry came up with ideas to distract the rider : perhaps they should establish altimeters and clocks in the cabin . If masses could see the logistics of their trip , their mind and stomach would somehow be moderate . It would also help to be hold open inform of the landscapes they were traversing . One thoughtwas to maybe have a “ bow-wow ” point of view in front and blackguard out description over a megaphone .
According to an accountemailed toVoxby Gary Ferguson of RNPA Contrails , Northwest Airways pilot Captain Joseph E. Kimm rigged an early variant of the air sickness bagful — that is , he just buy some bag from the grocery store . “ browned paper bags were only efficient for a very few seconds , ” Kimm had articulate . “ We learn this because we had the Book of Job of cleaning up if we miss . ”
Meanwhile , American carrier Northwest Orient Airlines ( which subsequently flux with Delta ) saw the potential drop in Schjeldahl ’s plastic - lined traveling bag , and struck a deal with his Minneapolis employer . But in retrospect , it probably came a little too lately . By the mid-1930s , publication likeFlightmagazine were declaring that the scourge of airsickness was now “ comparatively rare . ” And in 1946 , cabin pressurization debuted on Boeing ’s commercial 307 Stratoliner , the “ Flying Whale . It cruised at 20,000 foot and usher in a fresh generation of larger , more stable aircraft , which afforded passengers a importantly smoother ride .
Barf bags like to tell you exactly what they’re useful for.|Peter Dazeley / The Image Bank / Getty Images
A1946 issue ofPopular Mechanicsreported that “ an one-time booger , ” airsickness , was really now down to three out of every 1,000 passengers . With the fall need for vomitus bags , they patch up in seat backs more as a psychological ointment and security blanket — and also a fashion to think about those who scram bored in the tune .
They also started to stretch beyond an aeroplane ’s aluminum walls . To this day , they ’re afavorite gimmick at repulsion movie screenings . event in pointedness : There are several fromSpike & Mike ’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation . There ’s a Snoop Doggy Bag ( one guess as to what it ’s supposed to carry ) and anUp Chuck bagfrom the Garbage Pail Kids . And in a glass case is another one of those holy grails : a bag that went up on the blank shuttlebefore the manned program give up in 2012 . Nausea was a common occurrence for astronauts , so the bag had the very important undertaking of trapping the spew before it floated away .
" … it seems like few and fewer people are ' joining the bile - high club ' these day "
Bob Grove a.k.a. Barf Bag Bob appeared on “To Tell the Truth.” (He’s on the right.)|Christopher Willard / Disney General Entertainment Content / Getty Images
The factual occasion for this exhibit is simple coincidence—75 years ago saw the innovation of both the barf grip and Dramamine , a correspondence brought to the drug society ’s attending by Bruce Kelly from Anchorage , Alaska , one of the top three collectors in the mankind and the fourth baggist in the exposition . The drug ’s accomplices will tongue - in - nerve note that as Dramamine sales go up , usage of vomitus bags have die down , though there ’s no evidentiary link to the two . But even though , perSlate , it seems like fewer and few people are “ joining the bile - high nightclub ” these solar day , airlines importune that barf bags are still being bank in every seat - back sac .
They are , though , usually just plain ashen and devoid of any branding ( at least in the United States ) . If such a contemporary bag say anything , it simply reads something like “ WASTE ” ( as with the one I had on a recent American Airlines flying ) . Which makes the impulsive barf udder stuff seat backs in the prime of flight — and now donning these showing walls — a musical composition of collectable history .
Throwing in the vomitous towel
Cox is now out of the collecting plot — he ’s currently downsize his home and sold his collection of 347 bags ( from 70 countries and 136 airlines ) to Dramamine , which pledged to display it on their office bulwark in Upstate New York . As he was cumulate detail , his one rule was to never pay for a suitcase . But if you want to yield for them , it ’s moderately prosperous . Vintage bags can be found allover eBayand collector sites , and in 2016 , theWall Street Journalreported that some were run short for$500 a pop .
you could peruse collecting online as well . “ Upheave Steve ” runs AirSicknessBags.com . There ’s also the Air Sickness Bag Virtual Museum ( barfbags.com ) orKelly ’s World of Airsickness Bags , by Bruce Kelly — a collection of around 7,300 and counting , one of the top three in the macrocosm . And should you desire to swap stories , there ’s a Facebook radical called theAir Sickness Bags Appreciation Society .
As unique barf bag designs disappear , though , it leaves a breach void in the pull together community . And since immature propagation will never organically be expose to these pieces of artwork , are the collector doom to whither the same fate as the objects of their desire ? Cox ’s experience would point to yes . Before off - loading his compendium to Dramamine , he undertake to give “ starter assemblage ” off to his University of Texas students , the style philatelist do to help beginners get pop with stamps . There were , however , no taker .
Eli Cox demonstrating his favorite China Airlines barf bag.|Courtesy of Dramamine
Self - deprecatingly , he attempts to justify it : “ I guess they were just too polite to take them . ”
