Now, I don’t know too much about the plastic bag man. I don’t know his name, his occupation, or where he lives, in fact, I'm not even sure he even has a home, but there are a few things I do know for sure. He’s got a beard as white as the teeth of a Hollywood actress and always wears an old gray winter cap to cover his curly, noodle-shaped hair. Every single time that I’ve seen him, he’s riding on the same old bicycle with a large basket in the front. Inside this basket, there’s always a pile of empty plastic bags. I’ve never seen anything inside the plastic bags, they’ve just always seemed to be empty, as if he was waiting for the right thing to put inside of them. That is, until I had my first face to face encounter with the man.

The first time I spoke to him, my family was holding a garage sale on a very sunny summer day and he decided to stop by and check out some of the stuff we were selling. At first I was a little intimidated by his legendary presence. It was like meeting a famous athlete, like Peyton Manning, on the streets. He’s someone who I’ve been watching play in the NFL since I was a little kid but I would never really expect to meet him in person. As the plastic bag man was looking through some of the clothes we had laid out on the table, I slowly shuffled my way closer to him, attempting to analyze ever move he made. He must of seen me staring straight at him because he waved in my direction and began walking his bike over to me. I will never forget the incredibly profound words he told me that day, “How much for the fish tank buddy?” A mix of disbelief and excitement lead me to quickly answer with “10 dollars sir.” Just like that, the man handed me ten dollars, wrapped up the fish tank in a plastic bag, and left to complete his next mission. I could see his beard float with the wind as he passed our house.

I hadn’t really seen the plastic bag man that much after our first encounter, until just recently when I was taking my dog on a walk at night. In the middle of our walk, my dog decided to do her business on someone’s front lawn, and I completely forgot about the bag. It was just my luck when I heard the rustling of plastic bags behind me. “Hey buddy you need a bag?”