No Straws, No Lids

My nephew, Vance, had a baseball game at Volcanoes Stadium yesterday. It was the state final. He plays for Portland Christian. They won; it was very cool!

Jodie and I wanted some soda's. We had E go buy us some. He came back with two large Pepsi's. E told us they had no lids and no straws.

Everyone who knows me knows that I use a straw for all of my drinks. My hands are shaky due to my disability, cerebral palsy. I drink everything from coffee to beer (when I drank beer) with a straw. Some waitresses still warn me that the coffee might be too hot to use a straw with it, but most seem to know that if I am asking for a straw, I know what to do with it.

At times I have Jodie or someone else who knows me help me drink when we can't get a straw. With the quart-size paper cup full of Pepsi, though, this would have been impossible.

My sister-in-law did some scouting around and found the slirpy vendor who said she could get us an extra slirpy straw, you know, the kind with a spoon at the end. This crisis was solved.

We have come up against this before, I think at a fair, where they had no straws. I did some googling to find out possible reasons as to why some venues are not offering straws and lids anymore.

-straws and lids are not recyclable per several websites I found.

-straws are not given out at zoos because they are a danger to wildlife. The Oregon Zoo has this no straw policy.

-one site suggested that straws are not allowed in ballparks because they might be used as spit-wod shooters.

-another site suggests that straws could present a choking hazard to young children because of a chance that a piece of crushed is could come through the straw and lodge in there throat.

My money as to why Volcanoes Stadium has a no straw, no lid policy is because they are not recyclable.

It would be nice for places who have a no straw policy to have a stash of a couple for people who really need them, but I don't think it is practical for them to worry about that.

I need to find a way to carry straws with me. They get too mangled when I put them in my pocket.

I use to carry a couple straws on me inside of a travel toothbrush container, but sometimes the straw got crumpled inside and were not usable when I needed them.

I've often thought that I need a man purse! Just a small bag to carry around that I could stow a couple straws, maybe some real silverware for those times that the flimsy plastic kind is all that is available.

Murphy's Law usually applies. I have gone places where I thought a drink would be offered, so I grab a straw from the small bag of them that I keep in the car. I go in, a drink is not offered, so I stuff the straw as discreetly as I can into my pocket. And vice versa, I go in someplace and a drink is offered and I need too ask if they have straws. People usually either don't have straws, or if they do, they are burried somewhere. I get embarassed and unomfortable when people need to go on a treasure hunt just to accomodate me!

A man purse, or a pocketable durable straw that I could use in a pinch. I will need to do more googling!