Why My Spouse And I No Longer Have The Handbag Debate
Because I nailed it with a decisive blow over a quarter of a century ago
Only the other day, I watched a couple walking across a car park. Their expressions, body language and even the staccato way he jerked the shopping trolley over minor obstructions, denoted fierce debate. I caught enough of the dialogue to know the focus was the bag swinging from her shoulder.
I smiled. The handbag debate.
As an aside: that would be ‘purse debate’ in the USA. I didn’t know purse meant handbag until I was in my 40s — and goodness me, didn’t that cause some confusion when changing planes at JFK. However, that’s another story.
In my experience, this is a man-woman thing, but I’ve not done the research to back that up, and it might just be a factor of whoever in the relationship has the fullest handbag. For us, it used to go like this:
Step 1 — The rummage: I would be looking for something that my spouse had an interest in — perhaps the house keys so we could get in out of the rain — and I wouldn’t immediately be able to find them (it’s a handbag/purse thing, it happens).
Step 2 — The search: I would find a flat surface and start to lay out the handbag’s contents in order to get a clearer view of…
