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I am at McD watching the long, slow flow of customers who want the kind of help they’re used to but is no longer available. Phase 1 looks like confusion as it comes to the faces of the 40-something and 50-somethings, mostly males.

Do I stand at the counter and wait?

Should I call out?

Pacing across the small space can happen next followed closely by a look of exasperation.

Finally, anger shows up often with an awkward attempt to find others who are suffering similarly in their attempt to buy a Senior Coffee, even though it exists only in their memories.

Nothing works anymore.

You can’t get anything.

Then I realized that we all exist inside of a rapidly changing system. All includes the McD employees and even the people who conceived, designed and put the current system into action. Nearly all of them can remember at least a fews days before kiosks and in-app purchase came into being and fast food meant a uniformed high school kid lashed onto a computer terminal. That kid used to be the tip of the the sword, the singularity where all customer need confronted McD’s ability to accommodate or refuse it. Today, most employees are on the move and no one appears to be slacking off although some move with significantly more determination and purpose. I am talking about teenagers here.

High school age customers know the drill. A few order by app but but most seem to prefer the kiosk. That makes me wonder how they figure out who owes what and who is paying. Somehow it all evens out in the end. The creators of the new regime, and here I resist using the term corporate overlords because I realized that everyone, even the designers and engineers who created the new systems are, themselves, merely reacting to and adapting to continuously shifting sands. No one knows, before it’s tried, if self-check, in-app purchase will work and deliver us all safely to fast-food paradise.

But, back to anger, though sadly, to be sure. Being confused is dandy. I’ve been there. But, letting confusion slip into anger that’s dumped on a 17-year old making minimum wage is totally fucked up. There’s this one kid and I say kid because I honestly cannot say if the employee is a he, she or a they. Because of the employee’s voice I am going to refer to her as she. She is delightful. Big, black framed glasses with curly brown hair working its way out from under her McD baseball hat she has to wear. She seems to smile warmly at everyone, all the time. She is always pleasant. Everything is no problem while her smile goes from warm to warmer. If a smart lawyer saw her, he’d hire her simply for her pleasantness. Pick her up and drop her into a law firm and she’d be a perfect receptionist. Clients would love her. She’d make oodles more money and be on her way to whatever profession she might choose. Yet, who knows? Maybe McD is giving her a different kind of start toward the same kind of eventual destination.

I hope this.

What really bothers me, though, is the thought of some bilious adult, likely a man, being shitty toward her, the kind of shitty that takes the warm glow from her smile.

I love small companies.

They can (and this is certainly true of Cancha) create products that fill a void for buyers (like me) who are tired of seeing and using the same old products.

It’s hard to believe there’s so little variety when it comes to tennis racket bags. There are the moving billboards offered by the big tennis companies. You know, the kinds your favorite pro drags on and off the court to make sure you know he or she is being well-paid by Wilson, Head, Babolat, Yonex or whomever. I wouldn’t say these bags don’t have their place. My coach uses one but in addition to carrying a whole gaggle of rackets every day he pretty much has to live out of it at times.

If you’ve seen one of these big bags you have pretty much seen them all. And, although many of my fellow club players are happy to bend their backs carrying them, many others prefer something lighter and more thoughtfully made. I think that way and obviously so does Cancha’s head honcho, Jack Oswald. You can read more of Oswald’s story at the Cancha website so I’m not going to rehash his story here.

Finally, I want to let you know that Cancha is giving the ax to the model I am reviewing here. I think that’s a shame since the bag they’re replacing it with with is significantly larger and more expensive. Oh well. I guess all we can do is wait and see what Cancha’s product offerings look like in the near future.

Look, a tennis bag is not a complicated thing. But, even a simple thing can be done well or poorly. As they say, the (tennis) gods are in the details.

I absolutely love the form factor of the Cancha Original Racquet Bag (15L). Absent the use of racquet for racket, I think the original Cancha fits the average player’s game and needs perfectly. It comfortably holds two rackets and three in a pinch. Double shoulder straps are an absolute must and they were one of the reasons for the Cancha being on my short list of bags.

Overall construction looks dandy. The materials appear to be resistant to water (not that it matters much here in SoCal) and the zippers are smooth and rugged feeling. The single zippered pocket on the outside is too shallow to be as useful as it could be. The pocket barely has enough room for my wallet, keys and phone. Forget about my sunglasses. Remember Cancha: phones are getting bigger all the time.

A unique and promising feature of all Cancha tennis bags are the RF Bonded Hypalon Molle Patches. These allow for quick attachment of various Cancha accessories like their Dry Bag. Cancha creates their bags to be truly modular and that flexibility appeals to me. For day to day use I don’t need (or want) a shoe bag piggy-backed on my tennis bag but when I hit the road with my rackets I will definitely want that option.

Though it’s a little hard to see there’s a half-divider between my rackets.

Even with the single velcro Cancha patch in place the bag is pretty stealthy and I appreciate that. Only my friends at Courierware go further in their effort to avoid obvious promotion of their brand by placing their name and phone number on a tiny tag on the inside of their bags!

I was a little disappointed that by the time I was ready to take the Cancha leap the only available color was red. The red is actually quite nice. The problem, of course, is many of the locals associate any shade of red with USC and that’s an association I usually would not tolerate.

But, for the Cancha bag I will make a rare exception. I hope my Cancha bag lasts me a good long time. So far, it’s been a joy to use. Well Done, Cancha!

Paul Cervantes

Confusion, anger and the sublime at McDonald’s

Cancha Original Tennis Racquet Bag (15L) review