I can think of two occasions on which I used motion sickness bags. One was on a flight back from Japan when I was about 10. We made it off the plane and were walking through that tube thing that connects the plane to the airport when I had to hurl. Luckily, my brother had taken a motion sickness bag as a souvenir. He was kind of peeved that I ruined it, though.
I can’t believe I’m asking this, but hey, what are your motion sickness bag stories? Anyone?
I was about 7 and we had just landed in NY Kennedy airport from a flight that originated in Turkey. I threw up during the entire flight so I had a fresh motion sickness bag with me. I stopped to hurl while the rest of my family was making their way through the airport and when I looked up they were gone! I don’t remember how or when I found them or whether it was all an elaborate ruse to lose me! LOL!
My sisters and I used to make them into hand puppets to amuse ourselves during international flights. I remember one particularly memorable flight to Munich where all of us got food poisoning and threw up into our gorgeous hand puppet puke-bags. The stewardesses were not pleased.
For awhile I wanted to collect one on every trip I went on: take one, write on it the trip and the date and have a silly reminder of all my flights… It didn’t last long: I could never remember to grab them. Too bad though. I’ve been on lots of trips and would have quite the collection now.
Not that I’d know what to do with them or anything…
“Multipurpose” etiquette plastic bag? I wonder what other purpose they envision it serving? 🙂
I was about 8, flying with my parents and yes, my brother, to or from seeing my grandparents in Salt Lake City. I think I threw up grape juice. (I can’t believe I’m telling you this, but you did ask).
I have never needed to use one ,but last time we were on a plane it amused me that the sick bag also doubled as a bag to send your camera film in to be developed!I just hope no-one uses them for both purposes!
The morning after the wedding headed to Canada. Handing them, one by one, to a VERY hungover Lala. Poor thing. She gets air sickness, anyway, but that just made it worse. Oh, I still feel bad for her.
I used to collect them, then give them to my little brother to use as lunch bags for school.
Only once, and it wasn’t even for motion sickness. I happened to get the flu pretty bad just as I was heading home from a visit to my grandparents when I was in middle school. Heading to the airport it felt like a cold, but by the time I was boarding the flight it was hard-core flu. The stewardesses were very nice and took good care of me, but right before landing, that bag came in handy.
We had flown all the way back from Japan (I was around 12) and were on a US flight from San Francisco to Chicago when we had to make an emergency landing in Detroit. Just as we touched down (and were supposed to be in the emergency landing position) I lost it and had to ruin one of their “souvenier” bags.
This is not an airsickness story but an airsickness bag story. My friend and I were flying back from a short trip and we were on the last flight of the night. I was going to be spending the night at her place and she lived with her brother. It also so happens her brother worked for the airline cleaning planes. We took out an airsickness bag and wrote a big old note on it asking for donuts in the morning when he got off of work. Come 7am, he came strolling in with our donuts saying he got the message and the crews cleaning the plane got a good laugh!! I say we got the better end of the deal!
My stepdad took us on a flight in his Cessna and decided he had to practice some “touch and go’s” (takeoffs and landings at small airports). Needless to say, I did not feel well (he’s an O.K. pilot). I still have the photo of my holding the unused airsickness bag…
I’m not shy! Actually, I wouldn’t mind have a supply of those bags. I don’t fly much, and have never gotten naueaus on a plane, but have been having migraines lately and have had to get inventive with my, um, receptacles. Sometimes with disastrous results. The first at-work migraine, a coworker drove me home in my messy car, while another followed us to take my driver back. How nice! When I felt like I might have to hurl, I grabbed a box from the back seat. People: cardboard boxes are a very bad idea! In a logical frame of mind, I’d know this. But I was desperate. And, soon after, wet. Poor, poor coworker! Now I keep a paper gift tote in my desk, and a plastic shopping bag. The plastic bag inside of the tote is perfect.
My husband finally stopped pointing out the place where he had to pull over so I could throw up. It was early in our relationship. Recently, he told me that he knew he wanted to marry me when he heard me throw up and still loved me. (Seriously, the gov’t could tape the sounds and play them back to torture terrorists or hostage-takers).
The worst motion sickness story I have is once, when I was maybe 10 years old, my family and I were flying to Medellin (in Colombia, they say this is one of the hardest airports to land in) and the runway was busy or something because the plane had to circle around the city for 40 minutes. My stomach was not happy. My poor parents had to scramble around trying to find a bag for me to throw up in. Luckily they found one just in time…but then my sister had to throw up too…then my brother..then my younger brother. It was a Mexican wave of barfing! And we all had to share the bag.
i never told you about my flight from pittsburgh to new york on a little puddle jumper? where we were in so much turbulence the entire trip that our bodies were literally bouncing up and down in our seats THE ENTIRE FLIGHT? the woman in front of me was crying her eyes out convinced we were going to die while i was busy puking up the snickers i had just eaten before getting on the plane. tiny plane and NO ARM RESTS on the aisle side. so you only had an arm rest on one side of you and yet you needed to hang on to it with both hands (one crossed across) if only to keep your head from continuously smacking into the ceiling above you. my hands were white from gripping so hard. i can’t remember if that was the same flight where they made us all move into seats further back because “there wasn’t enough weight in the back of the plane”… i proudly handed the “stewardess” my bag of puke on the way out and said “here, this is for you!!”
i never flew… am i the only person alive that *never* took a flight anywhere?
and i (thank god!) never needed to use such a bag in a bus or train or on a ship. am i abnormal??? O.
The only time I ever used motion sickness bags was last year on the way to Korea & Japan. We’d been airborne for about an hour and it soon became apparent that I had food poisoning. I couldn’t always get to the restroom fast enough or they were often occupied, so I had to keep asking the flight attendant for more bags. I lost count how many times I vomited throughout the 10-hour flight, but eventually they gave me a biohazard bag to hang onto to put the sickness bags in. Luckily my husband and I had a vacant seat in our row, so I had a bit of privacy and easy access to the aisle. I had one more “deposit” to make as soon as we de-planed, but luckily we were right next to a sparkling clean restroom. We met up with my husband’s relatives in the airport lobby who were shocked by my pallid face. They had a great remedy though: small sips of Gatorade (according to how well it stayed in my stomach), eventually followed by a few bites of canned peaches, and followed still later by small doses of corn flakes and milk. Food poisoning on an overseas flight: a good reason to bring your own food.
I was on a small flight in Brasil with the most turbulence I had ever experienced in a lifetime filled with flying. I had never been sick on a plane before but the entire plane was puking by half way through the flight. I think only 3 people did not get sick. I was with a group of kids and I will never forget the one girl asking the stewardess for “Tres barf bags por favor”. It was hysterical even though we all were sick and it was the worst flight of my life.
I did Air Force ROTC in college (and served 4 years afterwards) and during the summer between Sophomore and Junior years did my obligatory summer camp. The highlight was getting a 1/2 hour flight in a T-37, which is a two seater training jet. The day before I’d gone up in a small Air Force passenger jet and fought to keep from hurling. I was quite afraid I’d do worse on the T-37 and to make matters worse, we all pigged out on lunch just before our flights. I stuffed two airsick bags in my ear protectors and joked with the pilot about hoping I didn’t need both. My pilot was tall, dark and handsome…but still a pilot with an ego the size of Texas (I later briefly dated an Air Force pilot – they all have huge egos). Anyway, back to the flying. We were in Oklahoma in July and needless to say, it was hot. And I was wearing a 50 lb parachute and an oxygen mask and confined in a small cockpit area. My pilot let me take the controls and I did a roll (he showed me how and he had his hand on the throttle to make sure it wouldn’t go horribly wrong). Then he took the controls and pretended to “shoot down” clouds. It was all fine until I began to feel very hot and a wave of nausea swept over me. “Ok, I think I’ve had enough” I whimpered. We landed without my having to use any of the airsick bags.
I’ve had to use airsick bags on a few commercial flights. Not fun. And the attendants are not very pleased when you call them and hand them the bag! What are you supposed to do with it, leave it as a present for the people who clean the planes? You can’t get up to go to the restroom because inevitably the seat belt sign is on due to turbulence, which made you toss your cookies in the first place! I sometimes take Dramamine and while it does work, it makes me pretty loopy.
i was flying alone from ny back to sf, connecting in middle somewhere (ohio, i think?). early in the morning at the ny airport, i had a cup of coffee and no breakfast. when the plane was descending at the middle airport, i started feeling sick. i thought maybe the feeling would go away once the plane stopped moving, but the second the wheels touched the ground, i knew and i reached for the bag and filled it up pretty good. the seat next to me was empty, and the next one over had a guy typing on his laptop during the whole flight. i looked over at him, and either he didn’t know or he didn’t want to know, cuz he just kept typing away. i didn’t want to take the bag with me and i didn’t think it’d be nice to hand it to someone, so when i got up to go, i just left it on my seat. better that it be found than left swishing around the next flight.
oh, i just remembered this. this isn’t plane motion sickness, but it’s a throwup story all the same. i was driving my drunk brother home one night and he had to throw up, so good thing we had a plastic bag in the car. a block away from home, he told me to stop the car, which i did, then he opened his door and just placed the bag on the street, by the curb. “you’re just gonna leave it like that?” i asked. “i’m not gonna take it home,” he said. and then we drove off. so i guess maybe this leaving vomit around runs in my family.
OK Eggplant…this is officially the grossest thing ever!!!
When I was a little kid we did a lot of traveling, much more than we do now. I apparently was a puke machine when I was a toddler, but as I got older I got over it and started instead to take out my barf bag, write something like “EEEWWW!” or “Someone had Cheerios for breakfast.” on it, and put it back. Then I would do the other ones in my row, then go find my dad and do his row – he was really tall so he was always up in first class…
Good times.
When I was about 3 we were driving up San Marcos Pass. I had eaten Oreo cookies and drank Pepsi. I kept telling my dad I was going to throw up. He kept trying to tell me that I wasn’t going to and he wouldn’t pull over. So I leaned over from the back seat and puked down his neck! He pulled over pretty quickly. I have many good motion sickness stories… I still get motion sickness all the time but between Ginger tea and peppermint oil I do pretty well.
I am forever getting motion sickness, but the worst time was when a former boyfriend took me deep sea fishing on a day with 15 foot waves. Every time the boat stopped or started, the motion of it made me get completely queasy and then I would puke. I think I threw up in front of him about 4 times that day and then dry heaved until we got back to land. It didn’t really help that there was a dude cutting up tiny squid right next to me or that I was having to put that nasty stuff on my fishing line in order to fish. Yuck.
My “best” barf bag story is from when we moved from Chicago to NZ, via London. One parent, four kids under 10, and 3 flights: Chicago – LA, LA – London, London – Auckland.
Every time we landed, one of my brothers would puke. It set the next one off, and then the next one, till finally the smells and sounds got me started too. Classy.
At least the airline staff in those days were nicer than they are now – my poor mother!
my husband and I are airplane buffs. At our local ariport’s Warplane Fly-in, a couple of p-51 pilots were hopping rides. My husband surprised me with a flight–I was so stoked I must have been hyperventilating. The pilot got me settled into the rear jump seat, strapped me in (how come only he had a parachute?) and put the earphones on my head. They were ancient and not readily adjustable, so we couldn’t talk over the intercom, as they hung down below my ears.
As we taxied out to warm up, he was telling me about the cockpit, what not to touch, and being a smartypants, I asked about a barf bag. He turned in his seat and looked annoyed yet terrified. “You been in many small planes?!” he demanded. “One” I said, “but don’t worry, I don’t get air sick.” I don’t think I convinced him I wasn’t going to hurl all over his baby. He said to tap him on the shoulder if I wanted to land.
Anyway, we ran up, took off, flew a mile or two and then he told me he was going to do a roll. I gave him thumbs-up and we rolled. “HOOWWee baby! that was fun!” I squealed.
He proceeded to fly out over the ocean very low, turned the nose up and climbed steeply then turned sideways and pointed the nose straight down at the ocean, pulling up at the last minute. I could see the air speed indicator: 320 mph. in a 60 year old fighteer plane and me with no parachute! He shouted was I ok, I thumbs-upped and he repated this at least 3 more times. He could see the huge grin on my face, and got tired of trying to get a rise out of me so we turned back towrds the airport. When we taxied in, he remarked, “After this, I’m making sure there’s a bag in here!” Even though I hadn’t needed one! Just the same, I always check to make sure there’s one at my airline seat!
A few years ago, I went with a Canadian friend of mine to Seoul for the weekend (from Tokyo). The flight wasn’t bad, but we did eat McD’s at Narita…anyway, we got to Incheon and were on the lurching bus into Seoul for an hour and half. Right before we got to our downtown stop, my friend Carla said she was going to be sick. I panicked; we were on a bus and there weren’t sick bags like there are on planes. But there are those white fabric headrest covers. I started to grab one for lack of anything better, thinking she could at least use it like a hanky…the bus driver saw what I was about to do and freaked out on us. Then, I realized that I had changed money at the airport and they had put my won in an envelope. So out came the won and in went Carla’s dinner. The envelope held together just long enough for us to get off the bus and chuck it in a bin.
My favorite non-gross vomit back story also relates to Korea. A couple of years ago I took some other friends to Seoul (having lived there, I’m the resident Korea tour guide). We flew from Sapporo to Seoul and back on Korean Air. In their on-board shopping, they have kochujang (redpepper paste) omiyage boxes–the same little tubes they give you with your meal, but 10 tubes in a pretty box. We intended to buy them on our flight back, but were then told they had to be pre-ordered, which we hadn’t done on our first flight. The flight attendant felt bad that we were so disappointed, so she went around and collected the unused kochujang tubes and presented us with a whole air-sick bag full of them. We were touched!
I grew up in NYC. One day while cutting class, I was walking through Times Square(this was in the ’70s when it was still sleazy), I passed someone giving out fliers for a gross horror movie. I think it was “Mark of the Devil”, and the fliers were printed on barf bags!
The guy gave me a couple dozen and I used them the rest of sophmore year to carry my lunch to Catholic School.
I have a gross story that happened to a friend lacking a barf bag. In the olden days when work sent you to a tech training class, the company doing the training usually sent you home with a ginormous binder in a lovely tote bag with the company name. Like you, my frend was coming down the jetway when the need struck. Thinking quickly, he yanked binder out of the tote and yakked into the tote. Fun times!
These are my favorite comments ever, first of all.
And I’ve never barfed on a plane, but I did barf cheese fries on the top of a toilet seat once (not enough time to lift the seat before it came out), then I had to lift the seat and barf into the toilet. I went, weakly, downstairs to where my dad was, told him what happened, and he told me to go back up and clean it up. Went back upstairs, saw it, and barfed again. Waited for mom to get home. . . . This would’ve been a good time for an airsick bag. Actually, now would — I’m feeling sick just thinking about it.
Not in flight, but I’ve lost my lunch in train stations and never had a bag… my first was from sitting backwards on BART and getting off at 16th and Mission. The pee smell and the sight of all the bums was too much. I quietly chucked into a garbage can and turned around and went home.
A few weeks later, I was taking the train back home and started feeling awful in the transbay tube. I barely made it off the train at West Oakland. I’m glad I didn’t shoot for the railing — there’s a parking lot under the platform. I got back on another train, but at Ashby I shot out of the that car and across the platform to hurl onto the opposite track. It was spectacular enough to stop the train I’d exited, and the conductor leaned out to ask if I was okay.
If I ever have another train commute, I’m bringing bags.