The things they carried
As a bicycle messenger in the nineties I was amongst a group of misfits and outcasts that called Dublin's streets home. The things they carried were mostly determined by their habits. We all lugged a waterproof canvas satchel around with the company's name on it in massive letters. CYCLONE or QUICKSTREAM or GO FAR. If the bag was a good design you could swing it from your back to your front as you cycled so as to reach inside for whatever you needed. Attached to the front strap was a two-way radio for receiving jobs or telling the dispatcher you had dropped a delivery. Somewhere in the bottom of everyone's bag was a rain jacket. We all wore helmets as it was stupid not to in Dublin back then. Most of us wore wrap-around sunglasses to keep the diesel fumes from buses and pollution particles out of our eyes. And we all had signature sheets to record and prove deliveries. Sean carried a u-lock on his handlebar. Ostensibly he could lock the bike to a railing quickly or, as wa...