#ninth gate bag | Gray Summers

Old bag, first bag, damaged and disregarded bag, replaced by nicer model bag, revisit bag, want to see the bag has lived bag, love the bag, become a new identity bag. Ultimately. Life in the old dog yet bag.

Myself now. Faded and torn at the seams.

My most popular blog post, ‘Iconic ownership. #1. The Ninth Gate Bag’ has no comments at all. Why? The blog is visited for THE, as said, iconic BAG. From the film The Ninth Gate. Johnny Depp as Dean Corso the book detective character…..well, he carries said bag throughout the whole movie. And there is a worldwide fascination for that Musette Mle 35 French Infantryman bag. So much so, a company actually make a replica of it and it sells well.

https://bushcraftusa.com/forum/threads/la-musette-mle-35.167807/

Visitors to my blog? Nothing to do with the Summers’ normal blogs’ connection. What words I wrote about the philosophy behind the bag, and they were a long affair, were not important. Google result of my blog searched by thousands of people? They found my ramblings irrelevant. They just want to identify what type of bag it is. Ergo, the blog comes up high on the Google search list. What is typed by internet searchers trying to identify the bag? Who knows. ‘Johnny Depp Ninth Gate canvas bag’. Not Gray Summers views on his Musette mle 35 etc…….

The film is of an iconic/cult status now. So my interest in this theme was right place, right time.

MY VERY FIRST MUSETTE Mle 35 BAG. TAP ON EACH PHOTO BELOW TO ENLARGE. CHEERS.

The BAG was always the star of the show. Summers? Where he has always, and truthfully, wanted to be. A humble wallflower weed that gathers insights and speaks the odd words of interactive thought. ‘Hey! That bag you couldn’t identify? Here you are. It’s this one’. Hence the tap and looks at my blog. I feel like Summers is right in the middle of ‘Bill and Ben. The flowerpot men’. Bill and Ben are my early childhood. Born in 1956, they went alongside Pinky and Perky. That’s another story though.

Newer bag. More ‘together and unashamedly confident in its ambience’. Like myself way back when.

A better aged bag than the first one I bought. This one here has been carried for years as a decent version. Time to embrace the beauty of my first damaged bag.

Bill and Ben. My gosh! Suddenly a child again with black and white TV and no idea of what life throws at you in the future years. Bliss! Thank the stars for that little reflective moment and search into my past life. Priceless. Bill and Ben? I’m the one in the middle of them both. And Frankie the Fella kitten/kat? Well, he is both Bill and Ben. With language that sounds very Bengal/Maine Coon cat similar. Yes. Those sounds are very apt. And, if you watch this below link…..now you know where Toy Story got its influence from.

BACK TO BAG. Okay. I have a nice one of these bags now. Not too damaged. But, the other day it was a lovely moment to go back to the first one I bought. Holes in the back, paler and more stained than my first choice, yet still a memory of the original of my purchases. I looked long and hard at it. Carried around proudly for months….it deserved respect. I had a flash of thought. Vintage and damaged. Like me old self currently. Basically….I found it important to keep it alive. And still show the scars inherited. So I wanted to keep it alive.

**STAINED STRAP. BOUGHT AS LIGHT BEIGE. SO USED COFFEE TO DARKEN AND NEUTRAL SHOE POLISH TO WATERPROOF. I HAVE THE ORIGINAL STRAP, BUT IT NEEDS TO BE LOOKED AFTER. THEY FRAY AT THE EDGES VERY EASILY.**

So! With the simple, yet obvious repairs, it will be the 2025 bag of intent. Proud in itself because it is nearly 90 years old now. Me? No! Closing in on 70. So, the equivalent of only a few holes to show damage from life lived. And although the original bag’s strap is worn and not great for keeping in tow. I bought a new bag strap off Amazon to help it along. Bright sparkling new! Not a happy marriage. So it was prudent to boil a kettle, brew a cafetière of dark, rich coffee and then toothbrush paint the three scoop dark brew pressed coffee onto the pale strap to give it a bit of a vintage feel. Ironically it feels like Summers’ life. The original bag of ‘having lived warts and all’ supported by the strap of changed persona to work alongside, in modern support of, family, friends and blogger friends to assist being carried through from now to older years. Bag old. Strap equivalent of my friend and family to assist my current needs. All joking of course because I feel totally independent. Dependance? A few decades down the road.

Life in a bag and old YouTube uploads. Makes a blog subject don’t it? Part a fantasy blog, part truth. But……Bill and Ben though! The best bit of this blog. Timeless in their message.