The photo does not do justice to how nice this green color is in real life.

For fans of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, May 25 is Towel Day. Happy Towel Day! As Adams’ so skillfully articulated, towels are one of the most useful items to have. In fact, I always tried to have one towel even when I was homeless. In addition to being able to use it to wash and dry off, towels can be rolled and used as pillows or used as blankets. 

For some reason, I become particularly attached to towels and will often use them until they are threadbare or some other unfortunate fate befalls them. Towels have been quite memorable in my life. 

I specifically remember one towel I had during a bout of homelessness as being white with pink stripes on it. It came from Walmart. It was big enough to wrap your hair after a shower, and that was about it. I remember paying $2 for a shower at the YMCA. When you paid your $2, they provided a small bar of soap and a towel for your shower. I used the YMCA towel for my body and my pink-striped towel for my hair. 

I remember the towel set I had in my last apartment. I typically have 2-3 towels at a time. The trio of towels I had in my last apartment were from Target. There was one pink, one yellow, and one white with green stripes. I remember the apartment towels vividly, as they were the only set of towels that had a fate befall them other than using them threadbare. 

The last 4 months I was in the apartment, we pretty much had no water. Ok, we did technically have water, but it was not water you could drink or use for laundry. You could use the water to shower, but that was about it. You see, a new landlord took over the apartment building. The building was on a well. He hired some “water company” who did something to the well and turned the water blue. Not only was the water blue those last 4 months, but anything the water encountered turned blue also. 

They said the water was safe to drink, but after watching it turn all my towels blue from drying off after a shower, I did not believe them. I also stopped doing laundry at my apartment, as anyone who did laundry in that water had their entire wardrobe dyed blue too. 

When I moved into the house, it was time for new towels to replace the set I had that had been dyed blue by the bad apartment water.

My big towel splurge when I purchased the house was two LL Bean beach towels. I figured they would be large and luxurious. They are. I love them. I have the turtle towel and a starfish towel. 

I love the beach towels, and I still have them. They are still going strong after well over 6 years. My only complaint is that the large, thick luxurious beach towels take FOREVER to dry. I was thinking recently that once I wear out the beach towels, I will probably only have to buy one more set of towels before I die.

Then I also got to thinking about how often we do things for the last time – and don’t know it. For example, the last time I ran a full marathon, I had no idea that would be my last marathon. Of course, there is still a possibility. I could run another one. But more probably, the last one I ran really was the LAST marathon I’m going to run. I didn’t know it at the time.

We never know when we are going to do something for the last time. 

Given how hot and humid summer was last year, I decided that I don’t want to go through another summer with my beach towels and they excessively long drying time. I decided it’s time to go back to normal bath towels, and now is the time to buy them before tariffs kick in and drive-up prices and / or make items scarce.

I looked at different options for bath towels. Of course, I checked out LL Bean first, as they are high quality and an ultimate splurge. I picked out two towels in a green color that I liked but did not love and added them to the cart. I did not have enough in the cart for free shipping. I am one of those people that tries to only shop online when I have enough items in the cart for the free shipping. I was not about to go looking for items to add that I don’t need to meet the “free shipping” requirement. 

So I started looking around at other “high quality” bath towels. My thought was that this is the last set of towels I will buy before I die. They need to be good. Between the towels I am purchasing and my two beach towels, I will be set for life on the towel front. In fact, I could get by with my beach towels. There is nothing wrong with them. I did not technically need new towels. I just get impatient for the beach towels to dry. 

I ultimately decided on two supima cotton bath towels from Land’s End. They had a shade of green that I am absolutely in love with, they were on sale, and the shipping was free. They checked all the boxes including super fluffy. 

I am absolutely thrilled with the shade of green and cannot stop looking at them every time I am in the bathroom. They make me so happy. I have washed them, and they dry much more quickly than my beach towels. I will be using one later today for the first time, and I only hope that I enjoy using it as much as I enjoy looking at it. 

When it comes to something like Towel Day and the practicality of a towel from when I was homeless, these towels are completely impractical. They are luxurious. They are a shade of light green that won’t hold up to rough life on the streets. But these are probably the last towels I will ever buy. I wanted super fluffy, and I wanted that color green. Practicality be damned. If the world is going to hell, I’m going to have a bath towel I love. 

I got two of the light green towels. I am still using my brown LL Bean hand towels. My bathroom theme is turtles with colors green and light brown/sand. The new towels are more of a mint green color. I love it. 

Let’s hope it works well when I use it later. 

The beach towels will be going into storage and saved for when I go to the beach or if they are needed for some other purpose. You never know. If I do happen to visit another planet in the galaxy, the turtle beach towel will be the one to go with me. 

Happy Towel Day. Don’t Panic.