When I was younger, and we went on trips where a hotel stay was included, we ALWAYS brought our own towels. We never used the hotel towels, because according to my Chinese mother, they could be dirty or not truly washed. If we did use them, we never used them on our private parts, because heaven forbid stained disgusting towels disguised with bleach as clean be used on private parts! But they wash the towels after the prior occupants Mom. "Yeah, do you think a single wash will wash away a stranger's private parts touching these towels?!" Yes...? "No! You don't know what the person who stayed here before did to these towels! Sometimes bleach not washing away dirty" We didn't travel a whole lot, so this wasn't a regular occurrence anyway. If we visited family friends, we always brought our own towels. Always.
While I was working in Corporate America in my 20s and traveling for work, she would always ask if I packed a small towels for my work trips. These were really nice five star hotels, the best the firm could provide to keep all its employees happy (as they worked us to death at night and overtime). I'm disappointed to say I did lie to my mom, small white lies, little whispers of, "yes mom, I brought my own towel" when indeed I did not. The luxuriously soft hotel towels were so different from the rough towels I had become accustomed to at home where we hung all our linens out to dry in the sun. We lived in California, it just seemed fiscally responsible to hang dry all our clothes. The lines my dad had carefully constructed between trees made it easier to "dry the clothes" outside. I wouldn't ever learn how to use a dryer or that dryers made sweaters shrink until college, so I welcomed the soft plush towels from hotels, I might have even tucked a few away BY ACCIDENT! during that time...
I remember the first time I visited my now sister-in-law when Andy and I were dating, and I brought my own towel. I had become so accustomed to bringing my own towel wherever I went, my mom had instilled it into me from my youth, so it just made sense. It wouldn't be until after we were married, that she would ask me why I brought my own towel. As I tried to explain it, I started by saying well sometimes there are different scents in towels so.... all of a sudden, I realized I was inadvertently offending others by bringing my own towel. You don't like the way our towels smell?! Do they smell bad? No, it's just not the smell I'm used to. What are you used to? As I tried to explain the history of towels based on my upbringing, to chuckle at the "bring your own towel even to a hotel" mantra my mom would repeat, the new family I had just married into seemed to draw further and further away in disbelief and ridicule. So I made a commitment to stop bringing towels wherever I went, if just to save face (more on that later) with the new American family I had married into.
I am proud to state that change is possible! I no longer bring towels with us on trips. I occasionally bring kid towels (it's just easier because sometimes normal towels are so big...plus when we visit my parents, they still have the really hard towels because they hang dry all their stuff). Alas, when my family visits us in Salt Lake (the few times they have... also more on that later), they still bring towels. Old habits die hard for some.
No comments:
Post a Comment