Recently my family and I were about to embark on a tour of a dam. There was a sign showing items not allowed on the tour, including a backpack. My son said, “Mom, you can’t take your bag,” and I said, “That’s a backpack, and I just have this small bag.” The employee then pointed to a Christmas card-sized box on the counter and said, “If it fits in that box without being scrunched in, it can go.”
I put my bag in the box, and it hung over the side slightly. “Too big!” the employee said, quickly followed by “Too big!” from another employee. For some reason (we’ll call it PMS) this really set me off, and I said (kind of under my breath) “well I have things in here that I have to have with me, so we probably won’t go.”
It turned out that the tour was going to take an hour and we didn’t have that much time, so we bailed. Before leaving I asked, “Out of curiosity, why can’t a small bag like this go on the tour?” Approximately four employees got all excited explaining how a security officer has to look through every bag and telling me about all the items that people dump out of their bags. I said, “I have diabetes and there are things that I carry…” to which I was met with “Oh, you should have said you have diabetes. If it’s your diabetic (sic) supplies in there, you can take the bag.” And so on. I explained that I would never use diabetes as an excuse, so I would not have told them that’s why I needed the bag.
I’ve given this experience quite a bit of thought, and I think one solution is for the sign to include a statement to the effect that if one’s bag contains medical supplies, it can go through security. That way, I can disclose if I choose to.
Here is a photo of the bag that couldn’t go on the tour, and then could go on the tour, but didn’t. There is a standard greeting card next to the bag to show the size.